| |
Renwick sat facing the floor, head in his hands while Makera paced back and forth like a caged animal. Kish sat in one corner, looking grim.
“I don’t understand what happened,” Kish said. “I thought the highest it could go was eighteen thousand.”
“That was the price projection,” said Renwick. “Not a limit. The mystery bidder knew we were there for Lieutenant Cain exclusively. Knew that we had to have her and he knew how much money we had and how high we could go.”
“And you think it was this man who’s been trailing you through the station?”
“I can’t think of who else it could be,” Renwick said.
“Nor I,” said Makera while continuing her pacing. “I’m so angry I want to kill something,” she said. Renwick looked up at her.
“You already did that,” he said. She turned on him, angry.
“I did what was necessary, Senator, whether you believe that or not. I’m not subject to your human moral judgments and I would just as soon not hear them. You should be thanking me instead of condemning me,” she said. He stood up to face her.
“I’m not condemning you,” he said. “But I’m not prepared to accept your moral judgment of the situation either.” She took a step closer to him.
“We could settle this honorably,” she said, challenging him. He looked at her with disdain, then back to Kish.
“We have to get out of here,” he said to no one in particular.
“We haven’t finished our mission,” said Makera. “Are you running away?”
“From the danger of superior opposition? Yes I am,” he said. “We’re going back to the skiff and waiting for Yan to return. Then we’re busting out of here and going back to the Kali. We still have a mission to complete, Ambassador. A diplomatic one, and that requires us to be on Raellos in less than three months. I intend to make that deadline. I also intend to come back here once that mission is complete and rescue Captain Aybar and Lieutenant Cain, with plenty of reinforcements, if necessary.”
“We’re closer to them now than we ever will be,” she countered. “Running now solves nothing.”
He put his hands to his hips in a show of resolve. “I’m not looking for solutions, I’m looking to survive. As long as I am in command of this mission, and I am, we’ll do things my way. Understood, Ambassador?” he said.
She said nothing, but her face showed her acute displeasure with him.
“Silence is acceptance,” he said. He waved his hand around the room, trying to rouse his companions to action. “Now let’s pack our gear and get back to the skiff as fast as we can, and pray no one takes us out on the way.”
#
THEY MOVED CAREFULLY through the teeming crowds on their return trip to the skiff. Renwick stopped once to check the auction boards and found that Yan had gone for two-hundred seventy thousand crowns. He checked his credit account and found the full amount, minus commissions of course, had been deposited. Only now the money meant nothing, for there was nothing, or no one, for him to buy here anymore.
They moved along the corridors to their ship, stopping only to pick up supplemental items they might need for the trip back. Kish was the most active in this regard. Renwick put a stop to that soon enough and a few minutes later they were heading down the dock arm to their ship. He checked his watch. 0800. Four hours until their station permit expired.
Renwick punched in the code lock combination to enter the skiff. “Yan should be back with us in a few hours. Get the ship ready to move as quickly as possible, Mr. Kish. We may not have the luxury of preparing when the time comes,” he said. Kish nodded his acknowledgement as Renwick typed in the security key code.
The combination came back with a negative beep. Renwick tried it again. A second negative.
“One time I might make an error entering the combination. Twice is unlikely. Three times...” he tapped the combination into the keypad again. It beeped at him and the code reader turned red.
“We’re locked out,” he said, looking down the tight gangway, then turning back to his companions while he raised his rifle. “I don’t like this. Get your weapons out.” Makera reached for hers just as a voice cut through from behind them.
“I don’t recommend that,” it said. Renwick turned, rifle drawn. The gray haired man that had been tracking them stood at the entrance to the gangway, flanked by three guards, each of them with a Mark 7 coil rifle aimed at one of his crew. They were trapped inside the tight quarters, pinned against the locked door of their skiff. “Please drop your weapons,” said the mystery man.
“We should fight,” hissed Makera in a tight whisper.
“That would be a bad idea, Ambassador,” said the man before Renwick could even respond. At the distance the two groups were from each other he shouldn’t have been able to hear her, if he were Human or Raelen.
“You can’t get in, Mr. Renwick, because I locked you out,” the man continued. “You see I’m the new owner of your ship, as well as several other things you value.” He waved his arm in a forward motion and three more guards entered the gangway, with pistols held to the heads of three prisoners; Captain Aybar, Mischa Cain, and Amanda/Yan.
“Now that I have your attention,” said the man, taking a step closer, “I’m ready to begin.”
“Begin what?” said Renwick, slowly lowering his coil rifle.
“Why, negotiations, of course.”
#
HE WASN’T REALLY OLD, not when you saw him up close. He had the face of a man in his forties, if he were human, but his hair was a steel gray/white against a distinctly crimson skin tone, giving him the appearance of greater age from a distance. It was a mistake Renwick vowed he wouldn’t make again.
Physically, the man was very similar to any of the Known Races, with a lean and athletic appearance, and he held court now over his captives. They were all together inside the skiff; Renwick, Makera, Captain Aybar, Mischa, Kish and Amanda/Yan, all sitting in the passenger couches facing the pilot’s nest. The man, who said his name was Zueros, faced them alone, unarmed. The skiff doors were closed to the gangway and his thugs were locked outside, much to their consternation.
“My name, officially, is Pal Zueros,” he began. “I’m a trader from the Arapesh Colonies. Officially.”
“But in reality?” said Renwick. Zueros gave an affected sigh, as if he’d wanted to unburden himself of this information for quite some time and was now glad to do so.
“What if I told you, Senator,” he said, “hypothetically of course, that I represented a race that was genetically very close to yours, to Humans, but also close to the Raelen and the Gataan?” Renwick contemplated him a few seconds before answering.
“You’re speaking of the Preserver Myth,” Renwick replied.
“Yes. I assume you understand the details of the mythology?” Renwick nodded his head before continuing.
“Multiple races, genetically related to a parent race that knew that it was doomed, set out on various planets in this spiral arm of the galaxy to develop on their own and eventually encounter each other, hopefully in friendship and brotherhood. An interesting if somewhat quaint notion, but it has about as much validity as Atlantis or Eden or the Annunaki,” Renwick said.
“So you reject it out of hand?”
“I didn’t say that,” said Renwick, crossing his arms and sitting back in his couch. “I would require proof.” Zueros tilted his head to one side.
“Proof is a difficult thing to come by,” Zueros said. “But let’s start with what we do know,” he started ticking off points on his hand, a very human gesture, one which Renwick assumed had been learned through close observation. “Humans, Raelen, and Gataan all share specific DNA, greater than ninety-nine point-seven percent, this much is well known by modern science.”
“True,” admitted Renwick.
“And the possibility of this happening randomly is?” said Zueros.
“Highly unlikely,” agreed Renwick with a shrug.
“So we agree on one point,” said Zueros. “A deeper analysis of this DNA comparison however shows that the differing combinations of the three race’s DNA, minus the redundancies, does not create a whole codex. There are variations in each of us. In fact, if you trace mitochondrial DNA, you find that the missing elements are about one quarter of one percent of each of the individual races. So, the conclusion would be?” he asked Renwick.
“That we were all engineered from very similar stock,” said Renwick, remaining unconvinced by the arguments.
“And what if I told you that there was a fourth genetically similar race out there somewhere. One that is yet undiscovered,” said Zueros. “One that shares this same point two-five percent variation from the norm?” Renwick sat forward at this.
“Let me guess, you’re going to tell us where we can find this mystery race and ask us to join you in this quest so that you can write a book about it, and you’re willing to spend your entire fortune on this adventure. Am I far off?” he said sarcastically.
“Quite,” said Zueros, his expression turning serious. “In fact what I was going to tell you was that I am a member of that mystery race, and there are many others of us here, and if you don’t help me, everything you have built, your entire civilization, could crumble in matter of months.”
Renwick sat back again, suddenly sobered. “That is unexpected,” he said.
“And unbelievable,” chimed in Ambassador Makera.
“Less believable than an all-encompassing Void of dark energy devouring entire empires in just a few centuries, Ambassador?” Zueros said. Makera said nothing in response to that.
“I’ll need more than your word,” said Renwick, pressing his point.
“I’ll be pleased to provide a fresh DNA sample. The android can run the analysis, if that is agreeable?” said Zueros.
Renwick nodded. “The android has a name, by the way. In fact, she has two names, and two personas.”
“And those would be?” Zueros said.
“Amanda, the android persona, and Yan, the human persona,” Renwick said.
Zueros looked to the attractive android.
“And she’s further proof of my point, Senator. I’ve been searching this area of the Known Cosmos for the better part of two of your decades, and this android is the best example yet of the proof of my claims,” said Zueros.
“And how is that?” asked Renwick.
“Because she was built with Preserver technology, as was her ship, and the Void emitter station. In fact it is all Preserver technology, discovered by my race, the fourth race, and implemented in a strategic plan to knock down the Human, Raelen, and Gataan races.”
“What?” Renwick stood from his couch. “If what you say is true-“
“It is true, Mr. Renwick,” snapped Zueros. “The Void was not an accident, as you would suppose. It was the result of a set of intentional actions put in motion by my people and designed to literally throw your civilizations back into a Dark Age.”
“Then I would say, sir, that your people have succeeded beyond their wildest hopes,” said Renwick as he sat back down in his couch, contemplating his new adversary.
#
THEY ALL AGREED TO a fresh DNA test with Renwick and Makera representing their races, and Zueros representing his. Zueros produced a Gataan file sample for the fourth piece of the puzzle. Amanda/Yan ran the tests, allowing her android personality to do the majority of the work in the background while they continued their discussion. Renwick set the rest of the crew towards the job of preparing the skiff to depart, after first hugging Mischa Cain and shaking hands with Captain Aybar to welcome them back.
Zueros revealed his race were known as the Soloth, and that their home world was much further away from Unity space than the others. Specifically, even beyond Thousand Suns Space. That was why they were particularly interested in halting the advance of the Known Races into that area of the Orion Spur of the galaxy.
“Wouldn’t you protect your home?” Zueros asked of Makera and Renwick while Amanda/Yan processed the DNA sample data.
“I would,” said Renwick, “but not at the expense of billions of other lives.”
“Those lives have not been destroyed,” countered Zueros. “They have merely been placed in isolation, to slow their progress.”
“Which is much the same,” said Makera. “My people would never make such a choice. We would rather fight.”
“As is your way, Ambassador. But wars are much more destructive than blockades. And the Void is a blockade,” said Zueros.
“But what are you blocking?” asked Renwick. “Science? Progress?”
“Interbreeding, for one,” said Zueros. “Light, for another.”
“Light?” said Renwick, intrigued.
“Why interbreeding?” asked Makera, cutting in before Renwick could start asking his questions about light. Zueros answered Makera’s question first.
“Our people believed that it was the Preserver’s intent to create a Diaspora of DNA as a means of preserving themselves past the time when their civilization would dissolve due to internal pressures. They believed that they were strong, but not strong enough to survive their own flaws. By splitting their being into these four different pieces, they could preserve enough about themselves and their characteristics that they admired to lay a foundation for new civilization, one that they hoped would be stronger than their own.”
Zueros continued. “Each of the races carry a significant piece of the puzzle, a set of characteristics the Preservers admired. Humanity though was the most surprising to emerge, Mr. Renwick, given your planet’s reputation as a genetic dumping ground.”
Renwick looked up sharply at this. “Dumping ground, Mr. Zueros?” he said. Zueros nodded.
“For many millennia the Preservers transported less-successful races to your world, to clear the way the way for more promising candidates. Imagine their surprise when you came out of your system fully matured, your divergent weaknesses creating a racially diverse unity that surpassed all their expectations,” he said. “Haven’t you ever wondered why the other Known Races have nearly uniform racial characteristics, while yours has so many differing combinations?”
Renwick allowed Zeuros’ comments to pass over him, then changed the subject again.
“You were speaking of puzzle pieces. How does this mosaic of races supposedly work?” he asked.
Zueros actually smiled. “Humanity is the heart, the soul, the emotions and inspiration. The Raelen are the spirit, creatures of great passion yet also great vision. The Gataan are the body, young, strong, able and willing to do all the hard work of building a civilization,” he said.
“The Trinity, plus one,” said Renwick. Zueros gave Renwick a look that indicated he had just unlocked a key.
“That just leaves your people,” said Makera. Zueros nodded.
“The Soloth represent the intellect, the thirst for knowledge, the leaders of this new civilization,” he said.
“In your own minds, anyway,” countered Renwick. “Intellect without emotion, especially compassion, can be a dangerous thing.”
“Which is precisely why I am here, Senator. I represent a group of my people who disagree with the course our society has chosen, one of repressing the other races. That’s why I’m seeking your assistance,” Zueros said.
“You haven’t addressed interbreeding yet,” said Makera. Zueros shrugged.
“It’s simple really. If the Known Races are genetically compatible, then it makes sense that interbreeding would lead to an increasing of each individual race’s abilities and strengthen their civilizations. That was seen as a threat by my society, and thus, another reason for the Void,” said Zueros.
“You mentioned the Void was also designed to block light. How does that matter?” said Renwick, finally getting to ask his question. Zueros looked reluctant to answer.
“Our galaxy is in a constant cycle of motion through both space and time,” he explained. “As our section of the galaxy moves through this cycle, it passes through areas of greater light and greater darkness. Our science indicates strongly that the further we move away from the greatest local light source, the mass of stars at the center of our galaxy, we pass into a time of less energy, and less progress, or perhaps even regression. As we cycle closer, into greater light, comes increased, measurable, energy emanating from the galactic core,” Zueros said.
“So where are we in this supposed cycle?” asked Renwick. “How long is it?”
“From your perspective, based on your distance from the core, a galactic cycle, or a galactic year, is about two-hundred sixty million Terran years. You are just entering the last, and the lightest, portion of this cycle. Thus our people felt the need to act now to suppress the Known Races.”
“Before you were overcome by them,” said Renwick.
Zueros nodded. “That was the fear.”
“But you don’t share that fear,” stated Makera.
“Oh, I do,” said Zueros, turning to her and actually smiling for the first time. “But my group, my school of thought on our world, feels that any parent race powerful enough to split themselves into four pieces and spread itself out amongst the stars is far wiser than we are, and that plan should be allowed to proceed to its natural conclusion.”
“So, you’re an idealist,” said Renwick. “The worst kind of ally to have.” Zueros looked at him with a narrow gaze.
“I hope this isn’t an indication of your cynicism, Senator. We will have to work together to succeed,” Zueros said. Renwick held up a hand.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “I’ll take any allies I can. It’s just that I’ve found that when it comes to having friends with ideals or friends with guns, the ones with guns usually win.”
Before Zueros could respond Amanda/Yan broke into the conversation.
“I have the results of the test,” she said.
“And?” said Renwick.
“It is as he says,” she replied. “His DNA is distinct from human or Gataan or Raelen, but unmistakably a branch of the same tree, with the equivalent point-two-five percent variable in the codex.”
“So, Mr. Renwick,” said Zueros, leaning against the command console of the skiff. “You have a decision to make. Are we allies, or not?”
“You’re the one who has guards at the door,” said Renwick. Zueros responded to this by going to the door and dismissing the guards he had brought, handing them each a credit counter full of cash. They weren’t happy, but they did as instructed.
“We’ll need to use your ship, Mr. Renwick, if we’re going to get where we’re going,” Zueros said after they had gone and he had locked down the docking arm. Renwick put his hands to his hips.
“Wait a minute, you’re claiming to be an advanced alien form a distant star. Don’t you have some kind high tech starship of your own?” Renwick said.
“I did,” responded Zueros, a crooked smile crossing his lips. “But it was in the dry dock that you destroyed.”
Renwick looked to Makera, then back to Zueros. “That was yours?”
Zueros nodded.
“I thought if Mr. Kish was aboard it would give you a more obvious target,” he said. “But I have to admit I thought you would rather steal it than destroy it.”
“Sorry,” was all the chagrined Renwick could muster.
An hour later and Renwick ordered the skiff out of Skondar, gladly leaving the slave station behind them. He was pleased to turn piloting the vessel over to Captain Aybar and Mischa Cain to guide them back to the Kali.
“We’ll need to make all haste to Tarchus once we get back aboard the Void ship, Mr. Renwick,” said Zueros once they were underway.
“The Gataan home world? Why?” said Renwick.
“The Kali is my ship,” interjected Amanda/Yan. “I say where she goes and doesn’t go.” Zueros bowed slightly to her in acknowledgement.
“Of course. But I think for the sake of this mission perhaps we could all agree on one person to lead us.” Amanda/Yan looked at Renwick.
“I trust him on diplomatic issues, and overall management of the mission. But on military issues, I’ll still be in charge,” she said.
“Agreed,” said Zueros. He looked to Makera, who nodded yes.
“Then I accept,” said Renwick. “But I think our first stop should be the emitter station, to shut down the Void.” Zueros shook his head.
“You don’t understand me. We need to go to Tarchus because, as you said Renwick, we will need allies. We’ll need the Gataan, whatever is left of them.”
“For what?” Renwick asked.
“Why, to ward off the invasion, of course,” said Zueros.