Seeds of Earth (25 page)

'Do you have the course data?' Kao Chih said, emerging from the storeroom.

'I do but time is against us - I had to stun one of the guards, which means he'll be missed before long. Quick climb up to those stalls while I open their shutters. And you may as well leave the low-tech arsenal behind.'

Kao Chih shrugged, tossed the autoauger but decidec to hold on to the sledge. Then he stepped gingerly of the gravplate walkway, grabbed one of a series of tethered handholds and pulled himself along in zero-gee over to a now-open alcove in which a lugosivator of a cheerful blue colour was anchored. As he drew near, its windowed cowling popped open and Drazuma-Ha *'s voice came from the storeroom.

'You'd better get in now, Gow-Chee - it seems we will have to depart in a hurry.'

Once he was inside, the little vehicle shuddered and leaped out of its recess, sealing itself as it swung towards the ribbed bay doors. Kao Chih, thrust sideways by abrupt acceleration, held on to the seat while panicky questions crowded his thoughts - where was the mech, how did you steer this thing, and what if he hit something?

There was a thud from above, and looking up he saw the metre-long shape of Drazuma-Ha* lying on top of the cart, its microfields extended in a web that gripped the cart's upper casing.

'No need for anxiety, Gow-Chee. A brief journey along this side of the station and we shall be back inside and on our way to your ship.'

The bay doors concertinaed open and the flashfrozen atmosphere burst all about them in a glittering cloud as they flew out. For one breathtaking moment it was as if they were hurtling through a miniature galaxy, past swirls, clusters and ripples of tiny gleaming pinpoints. Then the cart slewed round as braking thrusters flared and off they sped.

The exterior of Blacknest Station was an accurate reflection of its inner disarray, a maze of spars and cables, conduit bundles, blobs of vacglue moulded into handholds, bulging (and frequently damaged) nets of trash, old pinhole leaks fantastically bearded with spiny icicles. Improvised bucketseat funiculars provided safe crossings while a horde of drones, probes and bots of every size darted about on mysterious errands. Drazuma-Ha* seemed to be steering the cart in the same direction as a couple of diamond-shaped bots bearing a red smiling moon symbol, and minutes later they were sharing the filthy, battered drum of a maintenance lock. There was a chorus of grinding, scraping noises as it turned, flashes of bright light, the loud hiss of repressurisation, and the lock swung open to reveal a cluttered, narrow workshop and a surprised Bargalil botmaster, its stocky, hexapedal form draped with tool belts and pouches of spare parts.

'Thank you for the use of your lock, good sir,' Drazuma-Ha* told it as Kao Chih clambered out of the cart. 'Please accept this excellent, deluxe-model miniloader as a token of our gratitude.'

Then they dashed out of the workshop, leaving behind the pleased yet confused Bargalil, his gaze moving from abandoned cart to empty doorway and back.

'We must be as quick as we can without arousing suspicion,' said the mech as a lateral slot opened in its upper section and a bundle of objects protruded - the boarding passes, dock ID, Tumakri's credit stems and hard cash. 'At the gate, be polite and calm, and if the new attendants ask for additional payment pay it without argument. Tell them that I am travelling with you if they ask for more details, say that I am your contracted technical support adviser. If they aren't aware of how vital commercial confidentiality is to a place like Blacknest I shall be more than happy to enlighten them.'

In the event, their passage through boarding control went smoothly, and Kao Chih had to pay only a fairly small amount to meet the 'one-off staff surcharge'. He felt almost giddy with relief as they reached the other side of the gates and hurried down towards the variously sized portals. Following a glowing telltale on the dock ID, they had just reached one of the medium oval exits when the mech paused abruptly, and glancing back Kao Chih saw the gate officials angrily gesturing at two bulky drones who were pushing their way past the desk.

The next thing he knew, Drazuma-Ha* had bodily lifted him with pressor fields that held him against the mech's casing, arms and legs held straight and immobile.

'My sincerest apologies, Gow-Chee, but speed is of the essence!'

Kao Chih let out a wordless sound of surprise as the mech launched itself up the docking duct, swooping and dodging around other passengers.

'Is there something you'd like to tell me, DrazumaHa?' he said loudly as they slowed to edge past a family of reptilian Naszbur.

'I shall explain it all,' the mech said. 'Once we are aboard and safely under way. Do not be alarmed, however - my predicament is no cause for concern over my integrity.'

Nice of you to let me know,
Kao Chih thought as they reached a circular door which detected his dock ID and opened like a flower, leaves sliding aside.

Then they were in the flexible transfer tube, dimly lit by a few glostrips and the docking lacuna's own floods, filtered through the tube's opaque membrane. Released from the mech's pressors, Kao Chih kicked and handsteered himself along to the
Castellan's
airlock, a sight he'd thought he would never see again. He brought the dock key up to the verifier panel and held it there while poking his little finger into the biosampler slot.

Something moved outside, occluding the light from the nearest dock flood, then suddenly it loomed closer and collided with the tube.

'Does it usually take this long?' said Drazuma-Ha*, now poised quite close by.

Kao Chih glared at the machine. 'Is that another of your predicaments? - look, it's trying to cut its way in!'

A metre or two back from the airlock, the tube's heavygrade material was being pinched. Kao Chih stared at the deforming plastic with panic and a growing sense of unreality enhanced by the hammering sounds coming from the access port at the other end of the tube. Then to his vast relief the verifier panel beeped and the airlock hatch slid open. Courtesy was not uppermost in his mind as he dragged himself in round the edge of the coaming, closely followed by the mech. Once they were inside he punched the hatch button and a moment later they were sealed off.

'Show me to the pilot controls,' the mech said. 'We must leave immediately.'

'This way,' Kao Chih said. 'But why the haste now that we're safe?'

As they reached the main console he heard distinct hard knocks and thuds coming through the hull.

'Who are those droids?' he muttered. 'And what do they want?'

'Collectors,' said Drazuma-Ha*. 'Chasing an old debt. A moment, please.'

Microfield extensors sprang out from the mech's aura to the console, connecting with several interface ports. Readouts and symbol telltales flickered in waves across the cockpit and one of the auxiliary screens unfolded from its niche to reveal an exterior shot of the
Castellan's
hull, underneath, near the midsection. A strange, angular machine crouched there on several articulated limbs, reflected light from further back casting it in silhouette. A second screen showed the other two droids now in the access tube and making cumbersome progress towards the airlock. Then a faint whining noise came from underfoot, beneath the deck.

'It's drilling through the hull,' Kao Chih said, striving to stay calm.

For a moment the mech made no reply, then: 'All is ready, Gow-Chee - shall we depart?' 'Without delay!'

The
Castellan
gave a lurch and suddenly he realised he should have been strapped in. Hurriedly he did so while keeping most of his attention on the exterior displays. The access tube had unfastened from the airlock and was retracting into its housing with the two droids still holding on. The third still clung to the ship's underside and the drilling sound continued unabated. On the screen, the jumbled shapes and structures of Blacknest receded as their reaction thrusters burned a departure trajectory.

'We will soon be far enough away for a safe jump into hyperspace,' the mech said. 'But there is a problem.'

'What kind of problem?' Kao Chih said hoarsely.

'The hyperjump course data I obtained from Avriqui's system is supposed to take us to Bryag Station near the Indroma border, but the value set is several hours out of date. Clearly he meant to recompile it just before departing with you and your deceased companion . ..'

Kao Chih's heart sank. 'We could emerge inside a sun or a planetary atmosphere ...'

'No, not with the safety features built into this vessel,' Drazuma-Ha* said. 'We would be safe from such perils, including the one currently attached to our hull - it would detach itself the moment the hyperdrive initiated its first phase. But our destination will be indeterminable.'

'And if that breaches the outer hull, we're finished.' Kao Chih gripped the arms of his couch. 'Do it!'

'You're certain?'

'Just do it now!'

The shield layer rolled across the viewpane and he murmured a brief prayer to his ancestors as the hyperdrive gathered all its forces and hurled the
Castellan
into the void.

24

GREG

He was almost a dozen metres down the southern face of Giant's Shoulder, shivering in a cold night breeze, when his comm chimed. He called out to Teso and Kolum, his Uvovo accomplices, to stop lowering, then answered the call.

'Greg Cameron here.'

'Hello Greg, it's Catriona. Just thought I'd call you before the shuttle leaves.'

'Ah, thanks Cat, that's, um, very thoughtful of you.'

'So, what are you up to this evening? Sounds like you're outside ...'

'Oh, just studying some pillar carvings, y'know, trying to figure out if they're ritual or ceremonial ...' He felt himself break out in a cold sweat, more from the gnawing sensation of vertigo, suspended there in the high darkness with a handilamp hanging from his neck, lighting up the rock face right in front of him.

'Just a moment,' said Catriona. 'Are you ... dammit, you are! - you're climbing down the side of Giant's Shoulder
in the middle of the night.
Are you completely insane?'

Greg sighed. In the aftermath of the shooting yesterday he had showed Catriona the scans revealing the passages and chambers beneath the temple, and together they had started planning how to reach the opening that led inside. But Cat had been ordered back to Nivyesta, leaving Greg to pore over the scans and and an assortment of pictures of Giant's Shoulder dug out of the files. Then came news of the bombings, which seized his attention for the rest of the day.

'Look, I'm fine, I'm safe, the equipment is the best and I've got friends helping me,' he said, exchanging waves with the two Uvovo smiling down at him. 'I'm more worried about you, to be frank.'

'I'm okay. Did you get hold of your mother and your brothers?'

'I did, and they're all well - no one was anywhere near Founder Square or the Ros Dubh sports centre, but there's been no word from Uncle Theo since yesterday ...'

'Greg, I just wish you'd give up this midnight expedition and wait for daylight.'

He smiled, thinking -
Ah, she really does care. Things are looking up.

'Och, don't worry, Cat,' he said, i'm strapped into a body harness with about a thousand D-rings and plenty of that Uvovo heavy-bearing line . ..' He gave the line a playful tug. 'Safe as houses . . .'

Which was when the composite strap junction at his back snapped. He yelled as he swung to the right and down, head dipping. Through his cold terror he was aware of his lamp slipping off and falling away into the blackness, but most of his attention was on trying not to slip out of the loops that still gripped his legs and left arm. The two Uvovo called down in fearful voices but he tried to reassure them - then cursed when he realised that he had dropped his comm. By now he had worked himself into a more upright position, holding on to the safety line with a gloved hand.

Gods, Cat was right! I must be mad to be doing this . . .

He glanced down and started to tell the Uvovo to haul him up, then paused, staring at a faintly glowing spot on the rock face a few feet below. He stared, held his breath and listened . . . and, just on the edge of audibility, heard a tiny voice calling his name. Catriona! He laughed shakily - his comm must be lying on a ledge or in the tangle of a cliffside bush - and shouted to her to wait a minute or two. Quickly, he rigged the loose strapping onto the safety line with toothhooks to take some of the load off the damaged strap junction, then told the Uvovo to lower him. Slowly he descended towards the glow, which he now reckoned might well be sitting in a niche in the rock. Then he came level with it and saw his comm, resting in a tangle of dry, dead roots that spilled out of a sizeable gap in the cliff face.

Reaching in he grabbed it and saw that Cat had disconnected. Quickly he sent a note saying that he was okay, then activated the comm's little torch and shone it inside the opening. He stared in surprise for a moment, then chuckled - beyond the opening was a small passageway sloping down towards the front of Giant's Shoulder. The opening was just wide enough to crawl into, which he did, pausing halfway in to undo the harness then shout to the Uvovo to pull it up. When he told them he was exploring a cave they became agitated, imploring him to return.

'I'll be perfectly safe,' he yelled back. 'Just get the replacement harness from stores and listen out for m .'

'Old places are dangerous, friend Greg,' came Teso's strained reply. 'Please be very careful.'

'I will be, don't worry!'

Then he turned his attention to the passage. It was quite narrow and low, just a little over average Uvovo height. The walls were smoothly worked with even curves, as was the opening through which he had entered. Shining his torch further down he could make out another similar aperture, but choked with coils of redthorn as well as the decaying detritus of dead plants. This had to lead to the opening he had seen on the
Heracles
scans, and which he had intended to find tonight.