| |
I figured if the Endar monitored anywhere in this place, it would be the entrance on the platform, my logic being: why would anyone need to keep an eye on a pit full of dead bodies?
I had something up my sleeve, literally. So I needed to relocate somewhere else.
First, however, I had to make a decision. Should I trust the kid? Even if the High Jerak scared the hell out of her, it did not mean she would choose me over him in a high-pressure situation. She had run to the Grip, to a room full of her people, despite the Endar presence. Besides, Seok had threatened to kill whatever was left of her family if she tried to escape. Even if she appreciated what I had done, pulling her from the airlock and all, when things came to a head, she might go with what she knew over a stranger. She might tell the Endar everything she saw or knew.
If I left her on the platform, they could snatch her back while I wasn't looking despite what the High Jerak had said. I would never be able to live with that. Besides, I hoped she had something to contribute to our escape.
"Come." I led the kid along another path in the dust, to an area beneath the ramp.
As we walked, the events since I emerged from a tub of purple-blooded fish crashed in on my brain. Aside from a room full of the kid's people and an Endar plot to destroy the EA, the next shocking thing was that I understood Arpi. In the passages above, with survival being my first concern, it had been a passing flutter of surprise. Now the realization fired suspicion and confusion.
Since the Corp enhanced my original civilian language package when I joined up, and they claimed not to have an Arpi package—the reason being the Primacy denied our right to access—I had to suspect Thok and His Frilliness provided my sudden skill. They had, after all, supplied Saura with enough Proambu for us to arrive and find our way around Idwal.
I still had to wonder why they thought I needed an Arpi package. It was obvious they had manipulated Saurubi and me, but I found it hard to believe the clown duo intended us to end up on the Moneyworld. I was also sure they hadn't expected the Endar to interfere with us or to kill Lirilune's family, so they weren't as smart as they thought with their messed up plan. People had died. A kid was in danger.
Whole Star Associations were under threat...
I muttered a curse. If they were passing out translation upgrades, a Makima one would have saved me a lot of time and trouble.
Oh, wait, the Makima were telepaths. Guess they couldn't help me with that one. I cursed the clown duo under my breath again.
The kid and I settled where the base of the ramp met the floor, the cover overhead giving us the advantage of three points of protection. The location could become a dangerous trap if something came out of the pit after us, but the tracks in the dust showed limited movement to the ramp and along the second path. All the prints were the distinct, narrow pattern of Endar feet.
We discovered two long metal poles with large hooks on the ends lying against the wall, which explained the second path. Dark debris caked the curved ends. I moved them farther along the wall, and we settled in the dust. I showed Liri how to scoop the stuff into a pile to sit in—the powder was warmer than the bare stone surface—and cleared a spot on the floor in front of me.
First, to introduce ourselves. I pointed at myself, "Vivi Zant." I pointed at her. "Lirilune."
She nodded when I said her name.
"Lirilune. Liri?"
She nodded more enthusiastically at the second option.
'Liri' was okay for me, too. "Good. We talk more. First check, see things can use. Fix hurt face." No need to go into how dangerous our situation was right now. It was more important to assess the resources we had available to aid our escape.
Of course, we had the files stored inside my head, my training, and my experience—all of which had not been much help up to this point. Lucky for us, I had things stored in the cuffs and a heel of my shipskins that might be more useful.
It had been a while since I inventoried my survival backup kit, but I knew I was short a number of useful things. Saura warned me every time we put into port that I should replenish them, but the supplies, in their particular packaging, which reduced their weight and size, were expensive. The excuse that we were short on creds the last time we put into Mandragala Station stung sharply now.
My shipskin had taken so much damage it was technically dead. My fingers felt like thick stumps from the cold as I struggled to force the small compartment in the left sleeve open.
Finally, I succeed in pulling the little, color-coded wrappers out. "Okay," I said as I spread them on the dust-cleared area.
"This filter clean water." I held up the thin wrapper for Liri to see. No need to get complicated on how it worked. She listened attentively as I ran through the rest of the stash. I displayed two packets that held expandable camo-film bags, several packets of sealant, four oxy/air tabs, three sleep tabs, a disinfectant pack, two nanite patches, a med seal, and three stimulant tabs. Among the missing, not-replaced items were two micro-explosives and calorie tablets.
I swallowed one of the stim tabs and slapped the nanite patches on my wounds to start repairing the torn flesh on my wrists and ankles. Had I known less about Liri I might have given her a stim, but the fact she was not Human made that risky. Besides, with no food and water available, the stimulant would burn through calories and put a body on the dangerous edge of exhaustion faster.
There were things I did have that would help her, however.
"Liri come." I tore open the disinfectant pack and motioned her closer. The swab wasn't wet enough to clean all the blood off her skin, but it took care of the wound. The slice was four centimeters long and a centimeter deep. Without medical help, it would leave a scar, but I didn't dare use a nanite pack on her for the same reason I didn't give her a stim: just because we appeared similar did not mean that we were. Instead, I covered the cut with the med seal—the edges of the wound had already closed—and hoped for the best. At least it would keep the dust out.
She slid back into her spot, curled up her knees, and watched as I turned my attention to the heel of my shipskins, to the foot opposite the cleaning mechanism. If I wondered why I was making this effort, all I needed to do was look at those big brown eyes. Anthy's eyes had watched me in the same way down in the cold, dim hold of the ship during the many times we crouched in fear and misery. It wasn't so different here, except I was old enough to know the consequences of my failures, from Anthy's death, to missing the connection with Saura, Duff, Shoff, and Meeroush.
I had failed so many times over the past thirty years...
I exchanged my regret for anger—it being a warmer emotion—and turned my attention to the items stashed in the compartment of the heel, continuing my chatter with the kid as I worked.
"This fifty meters of monofilament." I held up a tiny spool with hair-fine wrap, which wasn't much use without my wetware. I needed codes to plump the wire to a larger, selectable diameter. The packet included four fingertip covers for handling the filament, and—"Crap!"—the tool to break it into lengths was missing. There were two programmable chips, also useless without wetware. I laid them aside without comment.
"This best stuff." I showed her the first of my personal favorites, a gray curl of chameleon material. "This change into cup." With an expandable cellular structure, the gray one morphed into a container that, used with the now-precious filter, cleaned urine or dirty water to make it potable. A great piece of survival equipment, but not the kind of thing I wanted to explain to a little kid.
I didn't show the blue chameleon curl to her. It straightened and expanded into a combat knife that sported a hundred and sixty-millimeter blade with a rippling blue molecular edge, or, with pressure applied in the right place, converted into a tool with a malleable tip that would mold and harden into any shape until pressed again to soften the tip or return to a curl.
I could kill an Endar guard with the blade; its seething edge would make the necessary cut, even against a dense carapace, in a microsecond. Doing that wouldn't be a wise act, however. If I got out of here, there were many things the Endar could rightly accuse me of doing, but none of them currently rose to the level of murder. That crime didn't go over well in any society, especially if you killed its version of a police officer. Earth Alliance might find that difficult to ignore or defend. And I wanted to avoid unnecessary violence in front of the kid.
I would not hesitate to use it if pushed, though.
I laid the thin tubes aside with the rest of the items and shook out the last bits of treasure: a peel-and-slap seal and a small packet that contained a dark ring. Again, things that did not generate an urge for discussion.
I picked up the packet containing the ring and shook out the tiny, powerful laser into my palm. When I slid it on my right ring finger and pried up the tiny optical resonator from the surface, the inside of the band tightened against my skin, securing it in position. Good. No accidental severing of digits today. The thing keyed on the software in my head and the network of sensors the Marines had implanted in my body, instead of my lost wetware. It had three large power blasts, or a dozen small ones, or it could serve as a flashlight, depending on the command I sent to it. If it worked against whatever material the Endar had used to fill the tunnel openings, it might prove our ticket out.
All the while Liri watched me in silence.
Yes, if I had made use of these items back on Idwal, we might not be in this situation now. But everything had been securely stored in my shipskins, beneath the awaysuit I wore. Accessing them would have required stripping out of my protection in the middle of an alien environment while under the pressure of attack. My training went against that, and for a sensible reason: after my injury I might never have gotten back into my awaysuit. The Endar would have blown the section, and we would be dead. Besides, I'd been sure my glove could break the plasma stream.
Another of the many mistakes I had made up to this point.
The Endar, however, had made a few mistakes too. I still couldn't believe they had left me in possession of my shipskins. The EA never would have done that without closely inspecting them first. Their carelessness marked their naiveté of Humans. Or their disdain. Either way was a good thing for the kid and me.
They would take my skins at some point, however, so I had to use or find another place to hide the items I'd retrieved. Opening one of the packets containing a film bag, I dropped everything inside except the ring and a pack of sealant, which I used to glue the bag into my left armpit. The location was awkward, but the contents were thin, and the camo-film took on the color of my skin, making it difficult to detect.
I sealed back the compartments of my shipskins.
The kid was a resource, too. I just had no idea how to use a telepath to our advantage. Calling for help from the Makima inside the Grip seemed unwise; the Threadmaster had not impressed me as overly concerned with Liri's condition or what became of her.
I would have to be very careful to make her understand what I wanted her to do if I figured out a way to use her skill. Meanwhile, there was no point in stirring her up. I had so many questions, some of them critical, but if we didn't get out of this place, none of the answers mattered.
Liri was staring at me, her expression solemn. She squinched her face.
I waited in case we experienced some kind of breakthrough.
Nope.
She rose and proceeded to explore my head, her small fingers feather-light on my bare scalp.
Her mystification at my lack of telepathic reception struck me as odd since the Endar did not appear to be telepathic, either. Maybe it was because the Makima and Humans looked so similar that it perplexed her, or the fact I didn't require a mechanical device to counter her little mind tricks. Or maybe her time in hiding on the Moneyworld left her with the impression everyone was susceptible to her influence.
Which might be unpleasantly close to the truth. The Endar were certainly using her people to great effect pushing their agenda forward here in the Trade Compound.
The baffling part for me was the High Jerak's conviction she could manipulate Human brains. It sounded as if his whole plan was built around that premise. So why couldn't she influence mine? An error in his calculations? That was strange for something he claimed so many years in the making. I was not the first Human the Endar had gotten their chitinous claws on.
I did not intend to stay and help them solve the mystery.