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Earth, Landing Area Near the Red Nest
The Venture touched down on a one hundred by one-hundred-meter square of black pavement. At some point, there might have been buildings along the crumbling edges of the makeshift landing pad, but if so, someone had cleared them away long before. Now there was nothing but a field of grass bordering the asphalt.
A wide dirt road led from the landing area to a house less than a mile away. Val could make out the weathered gothic structure, complete with several massive towers. It was only a guess, but Val thought fifty or sixty people could live there for years without ever encountering one another.
Gardens extended to either side of the mansion, the green verge peppered with blooms in every color one could want.
Not exactly what she'd pictured when they'd said "red nest."
A tall, athletic man walked up the road toward them as Val and Alex descended the brow. Alex operated the powerlev with the shipment resting safely on top.
By the time he got it to the ground, the man was close enough to raise a hand in greeting.
"Vincent Margrave, Elder of the Red Nest. Thank you for bringing it. I hope it wasn't too much trouble."
"Not at all," Val said.
"We deliver things all over the quadrant," Alex said. "This was an easy run."
"I am glad to hear it, especially since you'll have to return it."
Val's jaw tightened. "That isn't part of the contract."
"Oh, of course not. I'm sure you accepted the job in good faith. The trouble is," Vincent said. "I didn't order anything from..." He rubbed a thin hand over his chin, a bemused expression in his light blue eyes. "Cyberhome, was it?" He gave them a polite, close-lipped smile.
He was an impossibly beautiful man, with chiseled features and intense blue eyes. If she hadn't known he wasn't human, she'd have guessed him to be around twenty-five, even though his demeanor implied a much higher number. The term 'elder' didn't seem to apply, and yet, that was the title Dinara had given him.
Val held out the manifest, but though he glanced down, Vincent Margrave did not reach out to accept it.
"Yes. They labeled it as cybernetic household aids." Val sighed. "We inspected the shipment before taking it on board. It's more advanced than anything else I've seen on the market, but essentially, it's a nourichef." She'd already told Dinara this, but if she'd passed the information along, Vincent gave no sign.
"I haven't ordered anything from Cyberhome in at least a decade," Elder Margrave said. "And, given that I am a vampire, I'm sure it will not surprise you to find that I have no need for a chef of any kind, let alone an automated one."
Val glanced at Alex, then back to the elder. "I understand, but–"
"The confusion is unfortunate." Margrave didn't look sorry, only benignly determined. He didn't want the shipment and had no plans to accept it. That much was clear.
"Forgive me, Elder Margrave–" Alex began.
The vampire smiled gently. "Vincent, please."
Alex nodded. "Vincent. Forgive me, but why would they send you an expensive machine that you didn't order?"
Vincent shrugged. "I couldn't say for certain. I would suppose that it is a simple data entry error. As I mentioned, we have ordered from them in the past. Gifts for the leaders of the local fae village, I believe. But that was nearly twelve years past, now. Nothing more recent than that." The smile again, but this time a glint of white appeared for a second between his lips.
"All right," Val said. "I'm sorry to have wasted your time this way."
Vincent moved toward her, an eager glint in his eyes. "It doesn't have to be a waste of time," he said.
Alex and Val took a united step back. "Is that right?" Val asked, her hand resting lightly on the blaster at her hip.
Vincent didn't seem to notice their unease and closed the distance gracefully. "Yes. You see, we've had a research project on hold since – well, for quite a while now. Our main resource left the planet, and we've had no other opportunities to interact with other humans since."
Alex took another step back, drawing Val with him. "Interact?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "For a research project?"
"Precisely. A sort of taste test, if you will. Looking at how humans differ from other species we've encountered. We have been compiling data for a comprehensive study of the human experience, both pre and post evacuation, for several hundred years. Slow going now that there are no humans left on Earth. Few of our current population have even met a human, let alone dined–"
"We, uhm, we won't be staying on Earth long," Alex said.
"Oh, that isn't a problem. Anything you are able to give us would be appreciated. Our initial resource came from Dr. Tessa Graham. But as you might imagine, a single source is hardly sufficient to create any real understanding of such a vast topic. We were hoping you and any other humans on board the Blue Venture might be willing to share your lives with us."
Val blinked. "Tessa supplied you with–"
"Do you know her?" Vincent gave them a genuine smile, revealing the points of his wickedly sharp canines.
Val's heart thudded heavily as all the vampire folklore she'd read as a kid flooded through her memory. "We've, uhm, worked together."
"On the HiveZ situation, no doubt," Vincent said. "Gaia tells us that has been resolved."
Alex cleared his throat. "As far as we can tell, yes."
"Excellent. Then would you and your lovely partner be willing to help with our research? Perhaps we could arrange a dinner for some of my colleagues this evening to start?"
"Colleagues?" Alex said, his voice rising in the final syllable.
"Oh my, yes," Vincent said, almost salivating in his enthusiasm. "There are at least six members of my team who would die to get to you." He chuckled pleasantly.
Val shook her head. He couldn't possibly think getting eaten by a vampire was on her bucket list, could he? But he obviously thought this was a proposition they'd welcome, or at least consider. He hadn't actually said anything about blood, but maybe he didn't think he had to?
Either way, she and Alex weren't interested. "I'm sorry, Elder Margrave. We were planning to leave in the morning, so we'd best make it an early night."
Disappointment clouded his features. "Oh dear. That is too bad. I had thought you offered your crew several days of planet-side R and R. We were hoping to conduct several interviews before you left."
Alex blinked. "Interviews?"
"Why, yes. For our book on the human experience. 'Humankind past and present' we're going to call it." Vincent eyed them both curiously. "What did you think I was talking about?"
"Oh, we... I... uhm." Val coughed, cleared her throat and tried again. "We really weren't sure. But interviews? Sure. We could probably do that."
Vincent clapped his hands once, grinning so that all his teeth showed. "Wonderful. That is just wonderful. Tell you what, it will be a bit impromptu, but I will make all the arrangements. Is six pm acceptable?"
"That's... fine," Val replied. She glanced at the large shipping container sitting on the Venture's offloading platform. "What should we do with this?"
Vincent followed her gaze. "Return it, I suppose. And I'd make them let you keep the delivery fee. After all, it was their error. Not yours." He turned toward the castle with a wave. "I'll send a guide to collect you just before six this evening."
Before Val could respond, he was halfway back to the gates. "Fast, isn't he?" she murmured.
"Yeah. I hope that's the only true part of the legends I've heard," Alex said.
"Gaia would have warned us if they were likely to eat us."
He nodded uncertainly. "Yeah, probably."
She walked over to the crate, circling it slowly. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I don't know. Your mind is an endless mystery to me," he teased. His smile faded as he joined her. "But what I'm thinking is, this wasn't a mistake. Someone wanted this crate on Earth."
"Got it in one," she said. Val flipped up the cover on the control panel and tapped in the release code. The lid lifted, a thin veil of vapor rising from inside.
When Val inspected the shipment on Suralia, there had been a shiny, cutting edge nourichef inside. Now all that remained were a few broken circuit boards and a scattering of nuts and bolts.
She met Alex's eyes. "Damaged in shipping?"
"No. Those aren’t enough pieces to put together into a working anything, let alone something as complex as a nourichef. Even if there were, we didn't have any rough patches. No attacks, no evasive maneuvers, even. I don't see how the contents could have been this badly damaged from a routine flight."
"They could have switched crates on us. It's been done before."
"Sure, switch crates and then demand a refund for damages. But when you add in the part where Vincent never made the order..."
"Yeah. That's what I thought, too."
Val slammed the lid closed. "Pack it up. Someone at Cyberhome has a few questions to answer."
