Universe of the Soul (37 page)

Both he and Zultan began to decode the crate. When they struggled to lift the lid, Gray walked over to help them. Between the three of them, they managed to lift the heavy-duty tunsteel contraption. Adri glanced in, and saw a small female humacom with dark hair, dressed in teenage street clothes, lying like a corpse in a coffin.

Floyd glanced at Zultan. “I'll go get my -”

“No need,” Zultan replied calmly. He pulled a cord from behind his ear and carefully inserted it into a port at the back of the female humacom's neck. There was a moment of humming silence as Zultan ran a program.

“He's decoding the standby blocks and issuing a full-power command.” Floyd whispered.

Seconds later, the female humacom's eyes blinked open. Her hands fisted and then relaxed, her eyes focused on Zultan. “Hey there, harddrive.”

“Hello Cassie,” Zultan answered. “I've missed you.”

If Adri hadn't known better, she would have thought it a soft reunion of two lovers. As it was, the scene was decidedly human.

“Come on,” Gray whispered, taking her arm. “Let's leave them be for now.”

“But I need to know that intel Zultan has stored,” Adri whispered back.

“Leave them be.” Gray repeated.

Funny how life works. Now I get to work alongside my captor, my old enemy. How did our paths merge into one?

At least Giselle and I will have fulfilled our mission to destroy the genocide machine.

And, what luck, we get to teach the Adept some moves.

[Captain, we have a situation on the bridge.]

Adri glanced up at the overhead voice of Jericho. She brushed the communicator on her ear in mild irritation. [I'm a little busy here, Jericho. What kind of situation?]

[We're being hailed by another ship, and it's approaching us.]

Adrenaline began to hum quietly in her veins. [Have you made contact?]

[No ma'am.]

[Good, I will be on the bridge in three minutes.]

[Very well, Captain. Bridge out.]

Floyd looked up from his crouch in front of Zultan. “Is this something to be worried about, Captain?” he asked.

Adri was momentarily caught in fascination as she watched the humacom designer deftly plug in circuits and cords into the datacom. “Not particularly. It's most likely a passing ship that wants to exchange gossip, or see who's the new captain here.”

“I haven't received any new data regarding Captain Rael or the
Elegy
,” Zultan said. “Any information that would be passed through to a ship would be much slower than us, since the command would have to bypass the main database.”

Cassie swiveled in the chair next to Zultan. “So, because you crashed the data system – which is totally awesome - they can't send out a warrant in a mass relay?”

“No,” Zultan agreed. “But that doesn't mean they couldn't send out a direct command.”

Cassie made a dismissive gesture with her hand, narrowly missing the cord that connected her to Zultan. “But they'd have to have a ship within range of an instant transmission, so they'd have to be
behind
us. And according to the logs I checked, we're the only ship scheduled to leave Halieth for weeks.”

Something cold slithered into Adri's stomach. “Keep up the work, Floyd,” she said. “I'm off to the bridge.” She hurried to the lift, trying to convince herself that this new development was nothing to be worried about. After all, the humacoms didn't seem to be worried. Except… Zultan was impossible to read. In the three days they had been traveling, she had found the datacom to be full of introspective sayings and layered answers. He never lied – his programming would not allow it – but he wound his way to the answer that better suited him. To Adri, he was more worrisome than even Jericho, whose newfound ability to lie had left everyone in shock. The only newcomer who was easy to read, and spoke exactly what she thought, was Cassie. At least there, Adri knew where to stand. The little humacom was fiercely protective of Zultan, and had no particular trust in the rest of the crew, with the exception of Floyd.

[Bridge to Captain Rael,] this time, Jericho's voice came over the earpiece instead of the overhead.

[Rael here,]

[The ship has gotten close enough to identify. It's a frigate,
G.C.N. Avix
.]

The cold in her stomach froze into a hard ball of tension. [Understood. Alert Vice Captain Grayson, get him up on the bridge immediately. I'm on my way. Rael out.]

Adri began to run.

“The
Avix
is hailing us again, Captain.” Jericho said the moment Adri entered the bridge.

Adri took a deep breath and sat down in her chair. “Bring them on screen,”

Behind her she heard the bridge door open, and without looking knew that Gray had arrived. His presence was strengthening. Then the main viewscreen popped on, showing an identically styled bridge, fully staffed. In the captain's chair sat a familiar figure.

“Why, hello there, Captain Rael,” Royce Carter was beaming. “What brings you to this neck of space?”

The ice was spreading through her chest, but Adri fought to speak lightly. “Hello Carter. I thought you weren't scheduled to leave for another three weeks,”

Carter waved his hand. “Ah well, politics, you know. Turned out that I was the only ship that had an available crew to set out immediately. I received an order from Admiral Appegus himself, can you imagine? He wasn't very civil, but that's no surprise. But you honestly will not believe what he said!”

“No, I don't believe I will,” Adri murmured.

“He was raving on about how I had involved myself in some sordid criminal affair! And how I had harbored known criminals in my house for two weeks and allowed them to escape the planet! Now, would I do something like that, I ask you?”

Despite herself, Adri's lips twitched. “Of course not.”

Carter sighed, and leaned back into his seat. All amusement had fled his face. “Rumor has it that you are harboring a traitor aboard your ship, along with a top secret piece of government property he stole. I am ordered to make a thorough search of your vessel, and if Dr. Floyd Tarkubunji or the humacom known as Zultan are found aboard, then I am to take command of the
Elegy
and return to Halieth. I suppose you can guess the rest,”

“Yes, I suppose I can.” Adri took a deep breath. Since Carter had actually met with Floyd, it wouldn't work to pass him off with the fake name again. She glanced over at Gray, who stood at his station to her right. He gave her a sad but confident nod. With a slight tilt to her head, she gave him his orders. Turning back to the viewscreen, she said to Carter, “I'm sorry it had to be you.”

“I am too,” Carter agreed. “But you know as well as I that crap like this happens. So are you going to let us board?”

Adri heard the bridge door open, and knew her orders were being followed. It left an empty feeling in her gut. “No,”

Her old friend ran his fingers through his hair. “I was afraid you'd say that. Need I remind you that you are breaking faith with the Galactic Commonwealth? If you don't comply, then you will be court martialed, and sent to the Z9 Hades facility. I don't want to send you there. You'll never be able to return to the Commonwealth systems,”

“I know,”

“Then why are you doing this?” Carter showed his frustration. “What are you up to, Rael?”

Movement in her peripheral vision showed everyone to be ready. It was time to end this. “Saving the universe, meting out justice, making the systems safe for children and small animals. You know, the usual. You could even say I'm saving the Commonwealth,”

“I see,” And Adri knew at once that he did. “So it comes to a fight?”

Adri smiled. “Carter, there was never a fight between us,” she raised her hand at Cassie, who had taken the Security station and hooked into the ship's defensive systems. “Open fire, target,
G.C.N. Avix
!”

Carter's smile was wry as he gave her a final salute, and disappeared. Adri was still staring at the blank viewscreen when they felt the reverberations of the antimatter transition cannons hit their target.

“Target hit, confirmed.” Cassie called, with something akin to glee in her voice. “Estimated damage…at the least, crippling.”

Adri found that she needed to take several deep breaths before issuing her next commands. “Freya, take us as far away from here as possible. Make a wide circuit of the system before resetting our course. I don't want anyone to realize what our objective is until it's too late to stop us. Gray, alert Duane…”

But Duane was standing by the door, his magenta face blotchy.

“Duane, get the engines running at top speed,”

The paranthian nodded, and with a last tortured glance at the viewscreen, he disappeared through the bridge door.

Adri rose from her seat. She was startled to notice that her hands were shaking. “Gray, take over. Give me an update if any new situation arises. Good work, crew.” She shook her head at Gray's concerned look. “I'll be in my office.”

She wasn't sure how long she sat there, drinking simulated coffee and brooding out the port view. Her mind whirled around the events of the last hours, pointlessly. Rationally, she knew that she was wasting her time, pondering things that couldn't be changed, but she was still annoyed when her office door slid open and Blair entered.

“I believe I made it clear that I didn't want to be disturbed,” she said.

“I'm afraid I don't have a choice, and neither do you.”

Adri rolled her eyes. “What do I not have a choice in this time?”

Blair's face was it's usual stoic mask. “I'm sorry about the events that went on this afternoon,”

“Yeah, well me too.”

“Are you going to give up the mission?”

Adri hissed a breath. “Of course not!”

Blair nodded, and made no comment about the rising surge of energy in the room. “Then don't regret the actions you've taken. Would you still be upset if it had been some other ship they sent after us?”

“You know I wouldn't!”

“Then why are you sad?”

Adri glared at him as if he'd asked why the sky was always up. “Because it was my friend, who'd helped us! Danwe, we stayed in his house!” Anger welled up inside her, a pleasant exchange for the guilty sadness.

“Do you think he wasn't prepared for your attack?”

That caught her attention. “What?”

“Come on, Adri, he'd guessed our move.” said a voice from the door. Adri looked up and saw Gray lounging there. The two men had joined forces. She scowled at them until Gray said, “He had ample time to return fire, as you know. Nor did he bother raising his shields to deflect our shot. He sat there and allowed us to shoot him, so that we could have a clear path to finish this.”

“Don't underestimate your friend Carter,” Blair added quietly. “He puts up a great front, but there is more going on in his mind than he allows to show.”

“You told me that yourself,” Gray said. “I'm sure he's known for a while that we were going to deviate from the mission at some point,”

Adri's scowl lessened. “You two rehearsed this, didn't you?”

Gray smiled. “Of course not.”

“Right, get back on the bridge,” Her vice captain gave her a jaunty salute and sailed off. She then turned to her doctor, who hadn't moved. “Okay, what is it?”

Blair sighed. “Did you notice how the room changed when you got angry with me? The energy buildup? Have you practiced anything I showed you?”

“Well, yeah…but…”

The young doctor shook his head. “I've spoken with Freya. From everything I've overheard, and what you've said about this mission, I think…”

“What?”

“That this is going to take more than military might to stop.”

Adri frowned. “What do you mean? We have the location of the battleship. Floyd is working to bypass the codes so we can access all the security data from Zultan's files. Once we have that, we can formulate a plan. What more do you expect me to do?”

“Have you spoken to Freya Tarkubunji at all?”

“Er…not really. The flashy wings really put me off,”

Blair's smile was faint. “You mean the fact that she's a Talented? From what I've seen, and what she's told me, she has various gifts, such as short foresight, and a very limited telekinesis. More importantly, she lived in a convent with other Talenteds for a great deal of her life. Did you know that?”

“I heard Floyd mention it….”

“Did you know that her convent was attacked shortly after she left? It was a massacre,”

A sudden vision – blood, fleeing lights, a beautiful winged boy – “What? Why?” Adri's head was wheeling. She sat down hard.

Blair leaned urgently against the desk. “Because someone knows you awoke as the heir of Veranda,”

“What? Someone who? Who in Danwe's name would care?”

“There have been rumors for years about another Adept having awoken. No one is positive just which one it was, or where they are. That in itself is very strange; usually many of the more clairvoyant Talenteds would be aware of such a phenomenon occurring. Just as it was for you. Freya told me that her convent was aware of the night you landed on Junus, and your genes became dominant. Yet none of those with the Sight spoke of your coming, and that is something they would have definitely been aware of. She said it was like they were being… blocked by something. Then, shortly after you awoke, her convent was attacked, and everyone inside was killed.”

“Are you saying everyone died because of me?”

Blair sighed again, “No. What I'm saying is that there is someone else out there who knows that you awoke, and appears to be doing all in their power to find you, and keep your emergence a secret. And they aren't afraid to spill blood over it. That suggests someone with a great deal of power, probably equal to yours.”

Adri leaned back in her chair. “So why are you telling me all this now?”

“Freya told me that it was a Talented who attacked her convent.” Blair said quietly. “Young, little more than a boy. He had immense power, but we do not know where he came from or even what his name is.”

The beautiful boy…
”How…how do you know about him?”

“Freya Saw him with her gift, just as he was attacking. That is how she was able to escape. Her gift was just small enough to not be blocked by whatever was blocking the Sight of the others, or so she thinks.” Blair replied. “And…you had a dream about it, did you not?”

Adri swallowed hard. “I don't think I like where this is going.”

“I didn't expect you would. But here it is. Freya and I have reason to believe that the boy could be hunting you. If he has some tracking ability, he might even be waiting.”

The numbing fear that seemed to coincide with the memories of the dream evaporated. “At the battleship?”

“Its quite possible. Like I said before, there must be a connection between you and the boy for you to have seen him so clearly in your vision. He might be able to do the same with you.”

“Okay. So what do we do?”
Please, bring this back to a level that I can understand
, she thought grimly.

“If the boy is there, you will need to deal with him.” Blair replied. “I doubt he would merely like to talk. Taking action against someone like him won't be easy, though.”

“So what do we do?” Adri repeated. “I have never fought with someone like that kid. I don't know…”