Kirsten summoned up the emergency statutes file from a memory cell and began to review it. Her neural nanonics started to
chart a course of action, balancing necessity against the chaos that would come with an attempt to suspend all Ombey’s civil
and industrial activities. “Without direct evidence of a physical threat I cannot issue a code two alert,” she said. “However,
I am declaring a code three alert, and a biohazard isolation order for the orbiting asteroids. I want them insulated from
each other, from the planet, and from incoming starships. Our orbital facilities are essential to our defence, and I agree
that they must be safeguarded against the carriers of this virus. Admiral Far-quar, you are to order and enforce a complete
quarantine as of now. All civil spacecraft in transit to return to their port of origin.
“Your primary military task is the defence of Ombey and the orbital asteroids with their associated strategic-defence systems.
A code three alert will give you the authority to mobilize our resident naval reserve forces; although if it is to mean anything
the quarantine order must apply equally to the fleet. Crews will have to be rearranged to ensure that personnel from different
asteroid bases are not mixed together. The navy’s secondary role will be guarding against further risk of infiltration within
the star system as a whole. That means all incoming starships to be refused docking permission.
“As to Xingu, I agree that it should be segregated from the rest of the planet. Sylvester, you are to inform the Xin-gun continental
parliament’s speaker that there is now a state of civil emergency in existence. Shut down its air transport links now. And
I do mean now, all planes in the air to return to their departure airport. Admiral, if any refuse to comply you are ordered
to shoot them out of the sky. Use the low-orbit strategic-defence platforms.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Kirsten watched Sylvester Geray’s image freeze as he started to datavise her orders into the secure government communication
net. “Roche, do you believe the embassy three are going to try and spread the virus among our population?”
“Their actions so far indicate that is their main goal, yes, ma’am.”
“So it’s not just them we’re looking for, we’re going to have to round up anyone they came into contact with?”
“Yes, ma’am. Speed in this instance is going to be essential; the faster they are caught, the fewer possible contamination
cases we will have to worry about. It’s an exponential problem again. If they go free for too long then it may well escalate
beyond our ability to contain, as it did on Lalonde.”
“Jannike, do the police on Xingu have sufficient resources to track them down?”
“I believe so, ma’am,” the ISA director said.
“May I suggest we use someone more familiar with people who have been sequestrated by the virus?” Roche Skark said smoothly.
“I’m sure the civil authorities are capable, Jannike, but I feel hands-on experience will be of immense benefit in this instance.
Someone who is perfectly aware of the urgency, and knows how to react should things turn ugly. And judging by Lalonde that
may well happen.”
The ISA director stared at him levelly. “One of your agents, you mean?”
“It is a logical appointment. I recommend Ralph Hiltch is sent to Xingu to oversee the search.” “Him? The man who didn’t even
know Laton was on Lalonde, the greatest criminal psychopath the Confederation has ever known!”
“I feel that’s slightly unfair, Madam Director. The Confederation and the Edenists believed Laton was dead after the navy
destroyed his blackhawks. How many corpses are you currently investigating?”
“Enough,” Kirsten said. “That will do, both of you. In this situation I think every resource has to be deployed without prejudice;
I’d like to believe we can deal with this incident better than a stage one colony planet. That was a good suggestion, Roche;
have Ralph Hiltch sent to Pasto immediately. He is to liaise with the civil authorities there, with a brief to advise and
assist with the capture of the embassy personnel and identification of anyone else who has been sequestrated.”
“Thank you, ma’am. I’ll inform him at once.”
“I just hope he can contain them,” she said, allowing her deeper worries to surface momentarily. “If not, he could be facing
a one-way trip.”
The cloudband which lay over the Quallheim was a muddy rouge colour when seen from the underside, streaked with long rusty
gold ridges as though it was reflecting the twilight rays of a sinking sun. It grew ever broader, the frayed edges stirring
and flexing in disquiet as it swam out lazily over the sweltering jungle.
Kelly, casually accustomed to the enormousness of Tranquillity, was dumbfounded by its size. To the west and east there was
no visible end, the band could encircle the world for all those sitting in the hovercraft knew. Straight ahead, to the north,
there might have been a hairline of blue sky above the black treetops. Amarisk was slipping gently into a deep luminous cavern.
Thunder, strident bass rumbles that echoed strangely, taking a long time to fade, had been audible for the last twenty minutes
as the two hovercraft eased their way towards the Quallheim over the buoyant mass of snowlilies coating the unnamed tributary.
There was no sign of any lightning.
The hovercraft slipped under the tempestuous lip of cloud, and red-tinged darkness tightened around them like a noose. With
the morning sun high in the sky, the transition into shadow was abrupt, leaving none of the scout team in any doubt of the
change. Kelly couldn’t help a shiver inside her armour even though the suit kept her skin temperature at a comfortable constant.
Reza’s communication block reported it had lost the geosynchronous communication-satellite’s beacon. They were cut off from
Smith, Joshua, and the navy squadron.
Trees lining the bank became dark and sullen, even the flowers which eternally sprouted from the vines lost their perky glimmer.
Snowlilies were the rancid colour of drying blood. High overhead large flocks of birds were embarking on their first ever
migration, flapping and gliding towards the brightness sleeting down beyond the cloud.
“The cloud stretches across the heavens like the Devil’s own wedding veil. It is the coming of an immortal penumbra as Lalonde
is eclipsed by a force before which nature trembles in fear. The planet is being forcibly wedded to a dark lord, and the prospect
of cold alien offspring issuing forth is one which gnaws menacingly at the team’s fragile spirit.”
“Please!” Sal Yong protested loudly. “I want to eat sometime today.” The big combat-adept mercenary was sitting on the bench
ahead of Kelly, shoulders slewed so the front of his rounded, dull-gloss head was aligned on her.
“Sorry,” she said. She hadn’t been aware she was talking out loud. “This is crazy, you know. We should be running the opposite
way.”
“Life is crazy, Kell. Don’t let that stop you from enjoying it.” He swung his doughty shoulders back.
“The problem is, I’d like to go on enjoying it, preferably for decades.”
“Then why come here?” Ariadne asked. She was sitting next to Sal Yong, steering the hovercraft with a small joystick.
“Born stupid, I guess.”
“I’ve been with Reza for a decade now,” the female ranger scout said. “I’ve seen atrocities and violence even your scoop-happy
company would never show for public consumption. We’ve always made it home. He’s the best combat scout team leader you’ll
ever meet.”
“On a normal mission, yes. But this bloody thing—” Her arm rose to take in the cloud and gloomy jungle with an extravagant
sweep. “Look at it, for Christ’s sake. Do you really think a couple of well-placed maser blasts from orbit are going to knock
it out? We need the whole Confederation Navy armed with every gram of antimatter they’ve ever confiscated.”
“Still got to have somewhere to shoot that antimatter down at,” Sal Yong said. “The navy would have to send the marines in
if we weren’t already here shovelling shit. Think of the money we’re saving the Confederation taxpayer.”
Beside Kelly, Theo broke into a high-pitched chuckle. He even sounds like a monkey, she thought.
“Regular marines couldn’t handle this,” Ariadne said cheerfully, guiding the hovercraft round a rock. “You’d need the Trafalgar
Greenjackets. Special-forces types, boosted like us.”
“Bunch of knuckle shufflers, all theory and drills,” Sal Yong said witheringly. The two of them started arguing over the merits
of various regiments.
Kelly gave up. She just couldn’t get through to them. Perhaps that was what made mercenaries so different, so fascinating.
It wasn’t just the physical supplement boosting, it was the attitude. They really didn’t care about the odds, staking their
life time and again. That would make a good follow-up story back at Tranquillity; interview some ex-mercs, find out why they
had quit. She loaded a note in her neural nanonics. The pretence of normality. Keep the mind busy so it doesn’t have time
to brood. The hovercraft arrived at the Quallheim itself after another forty minutes. It was four or five times the width
of the tributary, over two hundred and fifty metres broad. Both banks were overrun with tall trees that leant over the river
at sharp angles, plunging aerial roots and thick vines into the water. Snowlilies lay three deep on the surface, moving at
an infinitesimal pace. Where the tributary emptied into the Quallheim they formed a mushy metre-high dune on top of the water.
Now the scout team headed upriver, keeping close to the northern bank and the paltry cover of the trees. Reza seemed more
concerned about lying exposed to the cloud than proximity to possible hostiles on the land. With nothing but the lightly furrowed
carpet of snowlilies opening out like an empty ten-lane motorway ahead, the hovercraft began to pick up speed.
It was dark on the river, under the centre of the cloudband, an occultation which made all the team switch to infrared vision.
The trees blocked any sight of the natural sunlight beyond it. Thunder was a constant companion, booms slithering up and down
the river like the backwash of some vast creature burrowing its way through the vermilion vapour above. Big insects, similar
to terrestrial dragonflies but without wings, skipped across the snowlilies, only to be hurled tumbling by the wind of the
hovercraft’s passage. Vennals, burning with a pink-blue radiance of charcoal embers, hung in the branches of the trees, watching
the small convoy rush past with wide, soft eyes.
Towards the middle of the morning, Reza stood up and signalled the second hovercraft towards the northern bank where there
was a break in the trees. Ariadne rode the craft up the lush grass to a halt next to its twin. Fenton and Ryall were already
bounding off into the undergrowth.
“I didn’t want to datavise,” Reza said when they all gathered round. “And from now on we’ll operate a policy of minimal electronic
emission. Ariadne, have you detected any broadcasts from the invaders?” “Not yet. I’ve had our ELINT blocks scanning since
we landed. The electromagnetic spectrum is clean. If they’re communicating it’s either by ultra-tight beam, or fibre optics.”
“They could be using affinity, or an analogue,” Pat said.
“In that case, you can forget homing in on them,” she said. “Nobody can intercept that kind of transmission.”
“What about the blackhawks?” Jalal asked. “Could they detect it?”
“No good,” Pat said. “They can’t even detect the bond between me and Octan, let alone some xenoc variant.”
“Never mind,” Reza said. “The Quallheim Counties were the origin of the invasion. There has to be a large base station around
here somewhere. We’ll find it. In the meantime, there is a village called Pamiers a couple of kilometres ahead. Pat says Octan
has located it.”
“That’s right,” Pat Halrahan said. “He’s circling it now, at a reasonable distance. The whole place is illuminated with white
light, yet there is no break in the cloud overhead. There are houses there as well, about thirty or forty proper stone buildings
alongside the wood shacks the colonists build.”
“Smith said there were buildings like that in villages the observation satellites did manage to view,” Reza said.
“Yeah, but I can’t see where they came from,” Pat said. “There are no roads at all, no way to bring the stone in.”
“Air or river,” Sewell suggested.
“Invade a planet then airlift in stone houses for the population?” Pat said. “Come on, this is weird, but not insane. Besides,
there is no sign of any construction activity. The grass and paths haven’t been churned up. And they should have been, the
houses have only been here a fortnight at most.”
“They could be something like our programmed silicon,” Kelly said, and rapped a gloved knuckle on the hard gunwale behind
her. “Assembled in minutes, and easily airlifted in.”
“They look substantial,” Pat said with vague unease. “I know that’s not an objective opinion, but that’s the way it feels.
They’re solid.”
“How many people?” Reza asked.
“Twenty or twenty-five walking about. There must be more inside.”
“OK, this is our first real chance to obtain serious Intelligence data as to what’s going on down here,” Reza said. “We’re
going to deactivate the hovercraft and cut through the jungle around the back of Pamiers. After we’ve reached the river again
and set up a retreat option, I’ll take Sewell and Ariadne with me into the village, while the rest of you provide us with
some cover. Assume anyone you meet is hostile and sequestrated. Any questions?”
“I’d like to come into Pamiers with you,” Kelly said.
“Your decision,” Reza said indifferently. “Any real questions?”
“What information are we looking for?” Ariadne asked.
“Intent and capability,” Reza said. “Also physical disposition of their forces, if we can get it.”
Hackles raised inside her armour, Kelly let the team shove a couple of hovercraft electron matrices into her pack before they
all set off again. Reza didn’t want them to walk in single file, for fear of ambush; instead they fanned out through the trees
with chameleon circuits on, avoiding animal paths. There was a method of trekking through the raw jungle, Kelly learnt, and
for her it was always walking where Jalal walked. He seemed to instinctively find the easiest way around trees and thick undergrowth,
avoiding having to force his way against the clawing branches and heavy loam. So she kept her helmet sensors focused on the
low-power UV pin-point light at the nape of his neck, and bullied her legs to keep up.