The Evolutionary Void (9 page)

“That’s it?” a bewildered Mr. Bovey asked as Oscar turned back to the
capsule.

“Don’t worry, we’ll keep looking. And you might want to consider my
friend’s advice about dispersing yourselves about town. I’m being completely
honest with you; we’re just the first to come visiting you, and we really are
the good guys.”

The capsule’s door closed on Mr. Bovey’s frown. They lifted cleanly and
turned to fly above the thick river, heading back to the docks.

“So now what?” Tomansio asked.

It sounded rhetorical to Oscar. “I’m going to check in,” he told the
Knights Guardian.

“Yes?” Paula asked as soon as the secure link was opened.

“We’ve found her,” Oscar said.

“Excellent.”

“Not really. She’s on Chobamba.”

There was only a small hesitation. “Are you sure?”

“Living Dream has cranked up their confluence nests, something to do with
getting a decent emotional pattern to recognize. According to them, she’s on
Chobamba and having a good time sharing Inigo’s dreams.”

“That doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

“How quickly can you get there?”

“Not much faster than you.”

“I hope you’ve got sources in Living Dream. If they are going to try and
snatch her, she’ll need to be warned.”

“I’d have to find her first.”

“Surely ANA can track her down. Somebody must have noticed her starship
arriving.”

“It would have to be an ultradrive; that means a faction helped her. But
which one?”

“I was thinking of a shotgun warning.”

“Yes. That might work. I’ll confer.”

“If we know, then it’s only a matter of time before the Cat knows.”

“Yes. If she leaves for Chobamba, you’ll have to follow her.”

“Oh, crap; this isn’t what I signed up for.”

“Can you trust your team?”

“I think they’ll stick with me, yes.”

“Excellent. I’ll call after I’ve spoken with ANA. Incidentally, the
Accelerators are going to be put on what amounts to a trial within an hour.
They were behind the Oscean Empire invasion.”

“Shit. Really?”

“Yes. If they’re found guilty, we should see the pressure easing off considerably,”
Paula said, ending the call.

Tomansio and Beckia were looking at Oscar expectantly.

“So what does your boss think?” Tomansio asked.

“Same as us: It’s all very odd. Let’s get back to the ship in case we
need to get to Chobamba in a hurry.”

The slim ultradrive ship dropped out of hyperspace half a light-year out
from Ellezelin. In its cabin, Valean reviewed the data provided by the
starship’s sensors. She was shown the exotic matter intrusions representing the
huge wormholes that linked Ellezelin to the economically subjugated planets
that made up the Free Trade Zone. The scale of the wormholes was impressive,
harking back to the first-era Commonwealth when the Big15 planets were the
center of an economic web binding together hundreds of worlds. Reviewing the
size and power rating, she was satisfied that any of them could be used for the
task Atha had assigned her. The one connecting to Agra would be preferable; it
was the most modern and reached the farthest.

Like most long-term Highers, Valean had used biononics to remold her body
to a state she considered more functional and useful. Currently devoid of hair,
she appeared skeletal, with skin that had a strange gray iridescence, drawn so
tight over her bones that each rib protruded. Muscles were hard lines, also
standing proud and moving like malmetal. Her face continued the emaciated theme
with deep sunken cheeks and a slim nose that had nostrils resembling gills.
Wide-set eyes had orbs that glowed a faint uniform pink. Her only cosmetic adornment
was a circle of gold above her thorax, composed of a tightly packed cluster of
threads that seemed to be moving slowly.

After ten minutes standing in her featureless cabin, the starship
detected a minute distortion within the quantum fields. Another ultradrive ship
dropped out of hyperspace next to hers. The newcomer was slightly larger, with
streamlined bulges in its ovoid fuselage. They maneuvered together and linked
airlocks.

Marius glided into Valean’s cabin, his toga suit emitting wisps of
darkness that trailed along in his wake.

“A physical meeting is somewhat theatrical, isn’t it?” he inquired. “Our
TD (transdimensional) linkages remain secure.”

“They do,” Valean assured him, and smiled, revealing rows of tiny
burnished brass teeth. “However, it was felt that this would add more emphasis
to the message.”

“Which is?”

“Your Chatfield fuck-up has produced an unwelcome fallout, the largest
part of which I’m on my way to solve.”

“Paula Myo was on to him. Deploying him to Ellezelin was a simple precaution.”

“And do you have an excuse for the Cat?”

Marius remained impassive. “Her behavior can be unpredictable. That is
her nature. As I recall, it was not my decision alone to salvage her from
Kingsville.”

“Irrelevant. Your actions have produced unwelcome consequences at this
critical time. As of now you are downgraded.”

“I object.” Even as he said it, he tried to call Ilanthe, only to find
the call rejected. Still, his cool disposition remained unbroken.

The brass teeth appeared again, their sharp tips perfectly aligned.
“Irrelevant. Your new assignment is the Delivery Man.”

“That joke!” Marius exclaimed.

“We approach deployment, the culmination of everything we are. Nothing
can be allowed to interfere with that. He was seen on Fanallisto; find out why.
What is he doing there, what are the Conservatives up to? We also need to know
how the remaining faction agents will react afterward.”

“Victory is only hours away and you send me to some shitball outside
civilization to track down an incompetent part-time animal. I do not deserve
this.”

“Failure to comply will result in bodyloss. After the Swarm goes active,
there will be no re-life available. I suggest you make your selection.”

The dark hazy tendrils exuded by Marius’s toga suit swirled in agitation.
He glared at Valean, sending Olympian contempt flooding out through his
gaiamotes. “The true reason for physical contact, I see. Very well. I will
comply. I am nothing if not devoted to our success.”

“Of course you are.”

Marius rotated a hundred eighty degrees and slipped out back to his own
ship.

“Thank you,” Valean mouthed at the airlock door after it closed. She
ordered the smartcore to take her to Ellezelin.

Cleric Conservator Ethan had returned to the Mayor’s oval sanctum in the
Orchard Palace. The Cabinet Security Service had downgraded the threat level,
partially based on Ethan’s own conversation with ANA:Governance. The surviving
ship was simply maintaining a stable orbit around Ellezelin and gathering up
fragments of its vanquished foe.

His staff had served him a late supper of grilled gurelol fillets with
minted potatoes and baby carrots, washed down with a sparkling white similar in
taste to the one from Love’s Haven that Edeard had come to enjoy during his
first life with Kristabel. It was dark outside, with few stars showing through
the oval sanctum’s windows. Ethan ate by himself at a small table away from the
big muroak desk, overhead a series of petal-like lines glowing a pale orange in
the high ceiling. Shadows washed out from the walls, making the room seem even
larger.

He was just pouring himself a second glass of wine when his u-shadow
reported that Phelim was making a priority call.

Please, Lady, no more bad news tonight
, Ethan
thought wearily as he accepted the secure link. He was still awaiting the call
from Marius’s “friend.”

“We’ve found her,” Phelim declared.

Ethan paused, the wine not quite out of the bottle’s neck. “Who?”

“The Second Dreamer. The advanced pattern recognition routines located
her for us. She’s sharing Inigo’s Eleventh Dream, would you believe.”

“Great Lady! Do you have her safe?”

“No, that’s where the problem begins. She’s not on Viotia anymore.”

“Damn. Where is she, then?”

“Chobamba.”

“Where?” Even as he asked, Ethan’s u-shadow was pulling data out of the
central registry. “That can’t be right,” he said, putting the bottle down.

“My response exactly. But the routines are good. The Dream Masters
running them swear that’s an accurate reading. She started sharing the Eighth
Dream twenty minutes ago.”

“The Eighth?”

“Yes.”

Ethan knew it couldn’t be particularly relevant, but his curiosity about
the enigmatic Araminta was overwhelming. “So why did she skip over to the
Eleventh?”

“She didn’t,” Phelim said. “She’s on a linear run-through.”

“Four dreams in twenty minutes?” Ethan said it out loud, his surprise
echoing around the empty sanctum. At best, he would take a couple of hours to
dwell in one of Inigo’s dreams, and that was because he was so familiar with
them. Some of the more devout Living Dream followers had been known to spend
days in a dream, supporting themselves with intravenous feeds.

“Absolutely. That’s what convinced me this isn’t a false reading. Her
mind is … different.”

“How in the Lady’s name did she get to Chobamba? It was definitely her at
Bodant Park; you confirmed that.”

“Someone must have flown her there. And it must have been an ultradrive
starship; there’s nothing else fast enough.”

“So one of the factions got her and lifted her offplanet. Lady damn
them.”

“That’s the obvious conclusion. But it’s a strange way to hide. If she
wanted to be completely secure, she should have gone to a Central world where
we have no control over the confluence nests. The faction must know that.
Perhaps this is a message. Though its nature eludes me.”

Ethan sat back in the chair, staring at the slim curving bands of light
in the ceiling. The flowers they sketched had never been seen on Querencia or
anywhere in the Greater Commonwealth. That is if they even were flowers. Edeard
had always hoped to find them, but not even the grand voyages of his
twenty-eighth and forty-second dreams had taken him to a land where they grew.
And now Araminta was providing an even greater mystery.

“We have to have her,” Ethan declared. “It’s that simple. Whatever the
cost. Without her, the only contact humanity has to the Void is”—he
shuddered—“Gore Burnelli. And I think we know where he stands.”

“Justine can do nothing,” Phelim countered smoothly.

“Don’t be too sure. They are a remarkable family. I’ve been accessing
what I can of their history. And I suspect there’s a great deal that was never
put into any records. Gore was one of ANA’s founders, you know. There are
rumors of a special dispensation.”

“So what do you want to do?”

“How long before you have her exact location?”

“She’s in a town called Miledeep Water, which presents us with a slight
problem. It is somewhat isolated, and we don’t actually have anyone reliable
there. The Dream Masters are going to have to visit its confluence nest to get
an exact coordinate for her. It’ll be an hour before we know exactly where she
is, probably longer. I’m just hoping she shares Inigo’s dreams for long
enough.”

“Do we also have the kind of people on Chobamba who are capable of
bringing her to us?”

“There are some very loyal followers in the movement there, people I can
trust. I’d like to suggest we hire some weapons-enriched troops to back them
up. It’s pretty clear she’s got faction representatives guarding her.”

“As you wish. And Phelim, I don’t want another Bodant Park.”

“Nobody does. But that is probably out of our hands.”

“Yes. I expect you’re right. Please keep me informed of progress.”

The link to Phelim closed, and Ethan looked at the rapidly cooling food
on his plate. He pushed it away.

“You seem troubled, Conservator.”

Ethan started, twisting around in his chair to see where the voice had
come from. His u-shadow was already calling for help from Cabinet Security.