Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (43 page)

‘The ship spoke to us, all of us, as one people on that day when the expedition reached it,’ said Ushild.  ‘It was alive, inhabited by a being of immense power.  It told us that it had been stranded in space, long ago, that it had been disabled in battle in a great war, the greatest war in all of history and had drifted for unimaginable lengths of time, far longer than our species, and indeed life on our worlds, had existed.  It said that it needed our help, that it was unable to heal itself and was desperate to return home and that if we were to help it, it would take us there and show us, as a people, the most wonderful things.  It did not lie.’

‘This being inside the ship...’ said Rekkid.  ‘Did it claim to be one of your gods?’

‘No,’ said Urshild and began to cough.  Recovering his composure he rasped.  ‘No, it did not.’

‘Then where did it come from?’

‘It said that... it said that it been created by a race of powerful beings, that it had been encased within the ship, its artificial soul bound within a matrix that controlled the vessel.’

‘So you know that this artificial intelligence was not of divine origin?’ Rekkid pressed.  ‘Why are there paintings of this vessel in your religious works?  Surely it has some significance. What is it?’

‘You misunderstand... the beings who created it... what we saw when it led us through the Great Gate.  They are the creators... if they are not gods, then...’ Ushild could feel his strength waning, his vision was becoming hazy.  A cold sheen of sweat began to coat his leathery skin.

‘So your people went through the gate?’

‘Yes.  The ship was successfully recovered and it showed us the location of the Great Gate, floating inert between the two suns.  When we brought it close to the device it successfully reactivated it.  When our people passed beyond, the knowledge that we uncovered there in that place turned everything that we had cherished on its head.  Our entire religion, our entire sense of self was a lie.  We were nothing more than puppets of these long vanished gods, for it was they who had moulded us from clay, not the pantheon of deities that we had worshipped for millennia.’

‘Who? Who were they?’

‘In time we learned their true name, but the ship told us the name that other races down the ages had bestowed upon them: The Progenitors.’

Ushild gasped.  It was a physical effort to stay conscious.  A pain lanced his chest, growing steadily more acute.  He struggled to breathe.  Through fading vision he saw figures clustering around him, felt probes and tubes entering his body and heard muffled, urgent words in a language he couldn’t understand, translated tinnily into his own speech.  They thought he was dying.  Maybe he was.  He didn’t care anymore.

‘Will he live?’ said Steelscale.

Okanno sighed and scratched at the skin surrounding his head crest.

‘Too soon to tell,’ he replied.  ‘We only have a rudimentary knowledge of his anatomy.  He suffered a cardiac arrest in his secondary heart.  We managed to repair the damage, I think.  He needs to rest.  No more interrogations for today.’

‘I wasn’t...’ Rekkid began. Then saw Okanno’s expression and thought better of it. 

‘I’ll let you know if he’s ready to talk to you again,’ Okanno replied.  ‘
If
he comes round again.  I must insist that you deal with him more gently in future.  Perhaps if Doctor O’Reilly were to question him?’

‘Fine,’ said Rekkid acidly, as Okanno left hurriedly.  As the medic left the small chamber to which they had retired, away from the medical teams desperately trying to save Ushild, one of the
Shining Glory’s
drones entered smoothly and came to a halt in front of them.

‘The revelations of High Praetorian Ushild are most intriguing,’ said the ship, the head of its drone cocked like an attentive dog.

‘Yes they are,’ Rekkid replied testily.  ‘Tell me, how did the pride of the Arkari Navy manage to miss a giant fucking wormhole portal sitting in the centre of the system!?’

‘Quite easily, as it happens,’ the drone replied.  ‘The portal in this system does not appear to be particularly large.  Certainly it is not on the scale of the device that was uncovered in the Fulan system.  It would also appear to be no longer active and whatever material it is composed of, it is a black body object and near invisible to my sensors.  Indeed, I only succeeded in locating it by searching for gravitational anomalies around the central binary.  As I suspected upon learning of its existence, the device lies in the common centre of gravity between the two stars.  Even so, it was not easy to detect.  Bear in mind that the Akkal failed to detect its presence for thousands of years.  I have despatched recon craft to investigate.’

As the drone spoke, it began to project an image taken from one of the fast moving vessels.  The true colour image showed nothing but the blackness of space until the position of the camera moved and a slender, black bracelet was suddenly visible against the glare of  one of the stars that formed the central binary.  The drone froze the feed and zoomed in, then manipulated the image to make the device more visible.  Comparison images also appeared, taken in various wavelengths.  In most of these, the device was invisible unless it occluded a source of radiation.  It emitted none of its own.

‘How big is that thing, exactly?’ said Katherine.  ‘You said it was far smaller than the Maranos device.

‘By your reckoning: fifty point four kilometres in diameter, and barely a hundred metres deep.  It is significantly smaller than the planet sized machine that we encountered previously.  As I said, it is inactive, though there are no signs of any obvious damage.’

‘It was certainly active ten thousand years ago,’ Katherine replied.  ‘If what Ushild is telling us is true.’

‘Yes indeed.  However it is not responding to communication attempts either by the craft I have despatched or by myself.  However, I think we can conclude that this device is the reason that Eonara brought us to this system.  Perhaps if we can reactivate it, it may offer us a means of escape from this region of space and allow us to journey back to our home worlds.  I think it is time to do so.’

‘But we’ve only just...’ Katherine began to protest.

Steelscale cut her off.  ‘The ship is correct.  Academia and archaeological research are fascinating enough, but we need to face up to the fact that we are tens of thousands of light years from our homes and this may be our only chance of ever seeing them again.  We should gather up what we can and leave this place.  This world is long dead, but ours perhaps still live.’

‘But there’s so much to learn here.  We’re not seeing the whole picture!’ Katherine replied. ‘Those things that Ushild said, about the ship that they found and his people’s reaction to discovering the existence of the Progenitors:  There’s something about this place, about what they found that’s important beyond mere academic interest, I can feel it!  This society went to pieces and destroyed itself after they went through that portal and we’re about to do the same.  Doesn’t that bother you?’

‘Yes it does, Katherine,’ said Steelscale.  ‘But it seems to be our only chance of ever getting home again.’

‘What about Ushild?  Are we just going to leave him here to rot?’

‘No,’ said the drone.  ‘I and Okanno are working on a means to detach him from that device and place him in stasis until we can get him aboard.  I am confident that if we can stabilise him now, then this stands a good chance of succeeding.  I for one would be interested to hear what else he has to say about the demise of his people.  You have a good point, Katherine.  If we do manage to reactivate that portal and go through to whatever lies beyond, it would be helpful if we had some prior knowledge of what awaits us on the other side.’

Chapter 26

It was only after the third or fourth jump with the stealth module engaged, and when it was clear that they were not being followed, that the crew of the
Profit Margin
had been able to breathe a sigh of relief.  It was to be days until the ship would drop out of its jump once more, before the final leg to the Achernar system.

Isaacs flopped back into his seat and rubbed his tired eyes, then looked at his wife and saw his own exhausted expression reflected in her features.

‘Looks like we made a clean getaway,’ he said, and then looked over his shoulder at Steven in the seat behind him.  ‘I forgot to mention,’ he added.  ‘That was a tough fucking call you made right after we launched from Gagat’s Colony.  Could have ended messily but... it was the right thing to do.’

‘This is a Stallion class, isn’t it?’ said Steven.

‘Yeah it is,’ Isaacs nodded.

‘Don’t you know your own ship, Captain?  If the gravity well had been too steep the drives would never have engaged.  There’s a safety cut out built into the engines.’

‘Yeah well...  I kind of had that thing deactivated not long after I bought her.  The software was over cautious to the point of annoying about preventing the ship from jumping and I have it on good authority that it’s possible to hack into the system remotely and stop a ship from jumping at all.  Being shut down and boarded didn’t appeal to me and it was a real risk in my previous line of work.’

‘So in other words, I could have killed us all?’

‘Yep.  But hey, we’re all still in one piece, right?  Better than being toasted by that Shaper ship.  Still, falling into the atmosphere of a gas giant until we suffocated or were crushed to death by the pressure after the drive imploded would not have been a great start to the day, I’ll give you that.’

‘Will you give it a rest?’ Anna cut in, irritably.  ‘We, and your precious ship are still in one piece, and it looks like we weren’t followed.  Agent Harris: thank you.  You saved our collective arses with your quick thinking.  If it hadn’t been for you, no doubt we’d be still trapped on Gagat’s Colony surrounded by the Shapers’ enslaved horde.’

Steven merely acknowledged the compliment with a nod and then peered over Isaacs’ shoulder at the ship’s console displays.  The Arragut system was rapidly receding from them.

‘How long until we reach Achernar?’ said Steven.

‘Uh, seven days and ten hours or thereabouts until we reach the Saragossa system, then another jump to Achernar of two and a half days.  So, almost ten days to get to know one another, Mr Secret Agent ,’ said Anna, leaning forward intently.  ‘But I guess you know all there is to know about us.’

‘Some,’ Steven replied.  ‘The fact that Chen trusts you is enough for me.  She’s not easily fooled, nor does she trust anyone that readily.’

‘You know her well then, I take it?’

‘You could say that.  She and I go way back.  We’ve had our differences, and it wasn’t pretty at times, but I trust her judgement on some things.  Plus, she outranks me in SOC so, what choice do I have?  I have my orders.’ He shrugged.  ‘Look all I know is what’s on the record.  I know you two had some dodgy dealings in the past, but like Chen I’m not interested in what crimes you’ve committed.  In fact, your backgrounds in smuggling and so on are a positive advantage, not to mention the glowing reports of your work for us so far from Chen.’

‘So, do we get to know anything about you, or is everything classified?’ said Anna, gently mocking him.

‘You can ask,’ Steven replied, with a crooked grin.  ‘I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to answer you satisfactorily.  What can I say?  I started off in the Navy, moved into CIB after a few years and after following a rather circuitous route I was recruited into Special Operations Command.’

‘Have you come up against the Shapers before?’ said Isaacs. ‘Because believe me, this isn’t going to be easy.’

‘Yes, I have,’ Steven replied.  ‘I was there when we found the first one on the planet Maranos, as a matter of fact.  Since then, I’ve been helping to root the bastards out all over the Commonwealth and beyond.  I hunt them.  Someone has to teach those things what fear is.’

Isaacs nodded slowly, liking what he was hearing.  Then he noticed that Steven had acquired a haunted look as if he were reliving something terrible for a brief moment.

‘So, Maranos. Shit, you were there at the start of the war?’ said Isaacs.

‘Yep.  Can’t really talk about most of it though.  Bad business.  You know your cabins still stink of K’Soth?  It brings back a few memories.  I saw you got a few of them out of the Empire?’

‘Yeah, Steelscale was one of the good guys.  Almost got my balls shot off on the way out, but Chen pays well.’

‘So I gather.  You uh... you had some dealings with Doctor O’Reilly and Professor Rekkid Cor, in the Hadar system, correct?  Got them both out of a tight spot.’

‘You’ve seen the file,’ Isaacs replied nonchalantly.

‘Yes, I have.  How is Katherine these days?’

‘Uh, okay.  I think.’

‘That’s good,’ Steven replied.  ‘I take it Rekkid is as bad tempered as ever?’

‘Yeah, look we didn’t get much chance to get acquainted to be honest.  They left with Chen and the last I heard they were heading back into Arkari space.  What is she, ex-girlfriend or something?’

‘No,’ Steven chuckled.  ‘She and I... I once saved her from the clutches of a K’Soth Inquisitor, if you must know.  Sort of.’  He cleared his throat.  ‘Long story and mostly classified, but well, I’d do it again if I had to.’

‘Jesus,’ muttered Isaacs in admiration.  ‘You’ve fought those things?’

‘Hand to hand, yes.  Not something I’d recommend.’

‘Bloody hell, I think we’re in safe hands,’ said Anna.  ‘So who won?’

‘I’m still here with all my limbs attached, aren’t it?’ Steven replied.  ‘I did.  I’ve faced them a few times since as well.  Did you know the K’Soth war machine was riddled with Shaper agents?  They started off fighting us, and then ended up fighting each other.  The Empire rotted from the inside out, just like the Shapers intended.  It’s what they’re trying to do to us too, in case you hadn’t noticed.’

‘I had,’ Isaacs replied.  ‘Believe me when I say I’ve killed enough of their slaves to figure that one out.’

Steven nodded slowly as if digesting that piece of information and then changed the subject.