Terminus Shift (Targon Tales - Sethran Book 2) Page 7

  “Not to mention that we’re not welcome there. The Union Factors won’t ever allow us to deploy on Taancerum if the locals don’t wish it, no matter who’s hiding out there.”

  Carras looked up. “So who is?”

  “One rumor we’ve heard is that both of Tharron’s sons are going to be there for the meeting.”

  “That’s big.” Carras tapped a thick finger against his lip, pondering this. The rift between the Shri-Lan and the Arawaj had been steadily widening since the rebel leader died, leaving sons in place whose competence was still in question. The division, of course, was most welcome by Air Command. Any new alliances brought nothing but headache to an already chaotic situation. “If those two attend the chance of a formal alliance is far more likely.”

  “I’m afraid so. The Brothers wouldn’t step out their front door for four spanners, although that’s a nice present. For them to show up personally is making this a whole lot more significant. Got any of your people in the area?”

  “Not so far. I wanted to hear what you have.”

  She pointed at his com band. “Who’s Margaret?”

  Carras winced. “Sethran Kada.”

  “Kada.” Verick actually sighed and rolled her eyes skyward. “Tal, the man is a liability. A freelancer if not outright rebel sympathizer.”

  “He’s not failed me yet,” Carras said, feeling oddly defensive. “Probably one of my most effective agents.”

  “When he’s not delivering hostages to the wrong team or destroying evidence when we need it.”

  Carras smiled grimly. “Fortunately, his specialty is black ops and I no longer have to worry about Vanguard rules. The end justifies the means, Daphine. Mercenaries are always best kept at the end of a long stick and paid in gold.”

  “Well, he seems to have lost the spanners,” she said, dismissing the agent from her mind. “But I think we can upgrade this event. Sounds like more than just a few disgruntled Arawaj are getting ready to jump ship. Not the sort of expansion we need right now.”

  “Indeed. Can you get more ears on the ground? We need to know how many are deserting, which groups are involved, and what they’re bringing to the table, other than these four people. This could cause problems in any number of sectors, not to mention Caspia itself.”

  The major looked across the room to the consoles and map tables that took up most of the darkened space, projecting maps and plans upward. A specialist was walking through the subsector containing Caspia, a vital planet in the Commonwealth expansion plans. Regrettably, it was also the birthplace of the Arawaj movement and still home to many of them. Only a single jump distanced it from Magra where a significant Shri-Lan presence was tolerated by the government of one of the planet’s continents. If Caspia slipped through their fingers, so would what remained of Magra. “How are those talks going?”

  “They’re not. We were hoping to scatter the Caspian group as we did when we liberated Bellac. But if they ally themselves with the Shri-Lan I doubt that Caspia will join the Commonwealth. There isn’t a chief on Caspia that doesn’t fear Shri-Lan reprisal.” He leaned back comfortably and crossed his arms. “I wonder if the less traitorous Arawaj are prepared to do something about this. It’s not something they’d just watch from the sidelines.”

  Verick regarded him through narrowed eyes. “What do you have in mind?”

  “Mobilize the radicals. The last thing they want is to partner with the Shri-Lan. If they knew when and where this is happening, they’d want to stir up a little trouble. Shame if the Brothers got in the way of all that.”

  The major smirked. “Sure would be.”

  “Wouldn’t be the first time Arawaj has done our work for us. Another reason we really don’t want these two factions getting along too well.”

  She nodded thoughtfully. “I know just the man. Sco Cie Pacoby’s been ingratiating himself with Ivor Sebasta who seems to be leading this exodus. He’d just as soon eat his own foot than work with Sebasta but it seems to be working. I’ve got an agent in his house.”

  Carras winced. “Pacoby’s a nasty piece of work.”

  “But reliably fanatical. We’d assumed he was planning an assassination but now we think he’s looking for something bigger to undermine Sebasta and his posse. This is exactly what he’s been waiting for. If anyone can get into this pyramid, it’s him.”

  “All right. Have your agents convey the date and location of this meeting. Then leave the playpen to the Arawaj.”

  “Could get ugly.”

  “I have no doubt. Be prepared to pull the Vanguard agents out when it does. They’re damn expensive to replace.”

  The major’s eyes shifted to the civilian buildings next to the pyramid. “Not just Shri-Lan on site,” she said.

  Carras nodded. “Mitigate what you can. We cannot allow an alliance.”

  Chapter Six

  “Seth,” Seth said.

  “Huh?”

  He closed his eyes, not quite believing his own senses that the escape pod had finally come to a halt. His fingers searched along the raised tabs along the arm rest of his bench and, one by one, released the restraints that bound his body to the chair. Nothing seemed to be hurting in any extraordinary way. Nothing leaking, also a plus.

  “My name is Seth,” he said. “Are you all right?”

  “Mostly.”

  He reset the external cameras to scan the vicinity. Although he had never been down here on Tayako before, the terrain around them looked much like the material stored in his archives aboard the Dutchman. Flat, marshy, covered in dense ground fog, some rolling hills in the distance. Here and there, stunted growth rose above the mist like motionless creatures observing the alien visitor. The hazy greenish light did not vary from one horizon to the other. Gravity slightly unpleasant, air relatively breathable, population reasonably friendly.

  Seth looked over to the girl who was slowly testing her limbs as she sat up on her crash couch. She looked all right, he thought, although both of them should probably run a quick med scan. He allowed himself a quick peek along her nicely shaped torso and was rewarded with an icy glare.

  “Not too shaken up? That was quite a ride.” The pod had entered safely into Tayako’s atmosphere but the trip had strained their bodies and protective gear to the extreme. He’d been able to use thrusters and chutes to avoid a hard landing and the wetlands had helped to cushion the blow. No doubt someone had seen them drop, but he was less certain if he wanted to be found here.

  “I’m fine.” She looked at him more closely, apparently at greater liberty to drop her eyes down to his toes and up again. Her expression suggested a rather unfavorable judgment. “Why did you come here? You said Velen Phar sent you?”

  “He did.”

  “Is it true you’re a Union agent paid to collect us?”

  “Is that what he told you?”

  “I was expecting uniforms.”

  “It’s being cleaned.” Seth activated the external scanners to get their bearings and an environmental report. “We need to get away from the pod,” he said. “Sebasta might send someone after us. Or someone from town might send a drone to take a look and then report back topside.”

  “Town? What town?”

  He gestured at the screen. “West. Has an airfield. I’d like to get back to my ship.”

  “I’d like to get back to finding my people.”

  He stood up and started to open the overhead compartments. “That ship has sailed, lady. Sebasta will be long gone by the time we get up there. Air Command’s on its way and he’s got an appointment to keep elsewhere.”

  Her pale forehead furrowed as that realization seemed to sink in. “They’re gone,” she said. “Gods, how am I going to find them?”

  He sniffed a ration packet that someone had opened and left in here. “Well, you’re not. One spanner is better than none. I’m taking you out of here.”

  She continued to stare at nothing for a while before looking up at him. “What? Where?”

  “T
argon. They’ll want to meet you, Spanner.”

  “You’re out of your mind.” She moved out of her seat and to the exit hatch of the pod. “You, some hired hand, some Air Command lackey, show up here, lose the others, almost get us killed crash landing down here and now you think I’m going to go anywhere with you?”

  “I do.”

  She yanked the hatch release to flip the door aside. “Which way is the town?”

  He leaned past her and pointed west. “That way.”

  She jumped to the ground, landing with a splash and sinking deep. Thick mist swirled around her legs up to the knees.

  “Ciela?”

  “What?” She pulled her feet from the muck, struggling with viscosity and high gravity.

  He opened a hatch in the floor to retrieve a small backpack containing oxygen. “Supplemental, but you’ll need it.”

  She snatched it from his hand and shrugged it over her shoulder before turning away. He waved and retreated into the pod to resume his inventory of the bins. The emergency food packets and water bags seemed to be relatively recent vintage. A med-kit, shelter and other necessities were also tightly packed in the compartments. He started to load up two backpacks with supplies, whistling.

  Ciela returned only minutes later, out of breath and in a hurry to climb back into the hatch. She slammed the door shut and dropped into a bench, soaked to the knees.

  “Back so soon?” He gave her a sensor array embedded in a flexible sleeve. “Shouldn’t leave home without one of these, you know.”

  “You could have warned me,” she snapped and slipped the band over her hand.

  He sat down and once again ran the pod’s scanners as well as the one on his forearm. No ships approached, nothing moved out there except for the local wildlife. “This is much more fun.” He nodded toward her feet. “Are those waterproof?”

  “Yes.”

  “All right. How about you pay a little attention to where you are instead of stomping off on your quest to rescue your fellow rebels? Those things that almost chewed your feet off out there will actually take a leg if you let enough of them get close. Not to mention that you decided to march off to a town that’s almost six hours’ walk away from here without even taking a bag of water. You can’t drink that stuff out there. Is this how they train Arawaj where you come from?”

  “I’m a navigator. We don’t camp out much.”

  “Taking a gun is also helpful. You don’t know who’s in that town.” He stooped to pick up the weapon she had dropped during their cast off from the Hajsa. He snatched it away when she reached for it. “You’ll just end up shooting me with it. I’m against that.”

  “I’m not going to shoot you.”

  “You’re a rebel. That’s your job.” He pushed one of the backpacks toward her. “Are you ready to do this properly? If you follow my lead, we might get out of this bog in one piece.”

  She scowled at him. “You hope. How do you know so much about the place?”

  “I like to read.” He studied her sullen face. Even more so than the image he had been shown aboard the Othani, the unsettling otherness of her features continued to puzzle him. A Prime species, obviously, one of the people from a dozen different worlds that, for reasons much speculated upon but never proven, shared almost all of their DNA. Small differences set Centauri, Human, Delphian and Feydan apart only slightly; larger differences, like those found among the Caspians and Aramese, were the result of evolution in isolation. Interbreeding was rarely successful.

  Ciela appeared Human, but not like any of the Human sub-sets he had studied. Her voice sounded vaguely Magran but the sentient species of Trans-Targon in possession of a suitable larynx used hundreds, perhaps thousands of dialects. Her skin carried a pallor more common to Delphians or Bellacs, but the dark eyes and hair resembled neither. All that, combined with a lithe body, made up a rather attractive package. “You’re a GenMod, then?” he said.

  “You disapprove?”

  “I disapprove of you being an Arawaj, but I have that in common with a lot of people.”

  She shrugged. “But you think being a headhunter is a noble way to spend your time?”

  He almost voiced a retort to that when it occurred to him that she was probably right. He thought of the Caspian runaway he had delivered to Ton Kedi’s group and now here he was, stealing Arawaj spanners for use by the Union. Hunting rebels seemed to have become a way of life lately.

  He looked into those strange eyes that now watched at him questioningly when he remained silent. If he met her in battle, he’d shoot her without a thought. She was worth something to the Union and so he’d deliver her to her fate. Perhaps they could turn her into a useful navigator, perhaps not. It wasn’t his problem.

  “Let’s go,” he said, no longer interested in baiting her. Arawaj or not, she was in a bad spot, alone and probably frightened despite her belligerent facade. No need to make things worse for her. “This pod’s a magnet for looters.”

  “What about those things out there? Big worms in the fog.”

  “Walk fast,” he suggested.

  The bleary, shadowless light outside had not changed when they left the vehicle; Seth’s data sleeve informed him that they still had about twenty hours of sunlight but, at this latitude, a very short twilight before dark. His scan also told of higher ground ahead, slightly to the south of the town. He adjusted Ciela’s backpack, pleased and a little surprised when she did not complain about its weight. He hoped they would not have to use the supplies he had assembled. The thought of spending any amount of time down here lacked significant appeal. Each of them now used an oxygen supply that enriched Tayako’s gas mixture through thin tubes running beneath their noses.

  “There! See that?”

  He peered into the direction she pointed out and saw the snaking motion of the bog worm moving toward them. The drifting mist obscured its size but a quick blast from his gun stopped it immediately. “Scan the ground for more of these. Also look for deep spots as we go. We’re heading up that way.” He pulled her back when she went to take a closer look at the dead worm. Within moments, others arrived and only the splashing sound and agitated swirls of mist hinted at the savage feast they had served up.

  “Cannibals,” she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. She activated her data sleeve to probe the terrain. After a moment she began to walk ahead of him, silent, only occasionally pointing out an undulating shape moving beneath the ground fog. She was quick to interpret the scanner’s display and steered them around water-filled ditches and what turned out to be massive wads of egg clusters on the soggy ground. He began to worry less about her ability to keep up with the forced march.

  They stopped for a rest and a quick bite only an hour into the hike, already feeling the strain of the planet’s gravity as well as the swamp sucking on their boots with every step. The emergency rations felt a bit like chewing on damp socks and neither bothered to take a closer look at it.

  “Hear that?” she said.

  “What?” He looked up and then checked his scanner. “Four vehicles. Skimmers, I think. Coming from over there.”

  “Good! Maybe we can get a ride to town.” She noticed his hand on the safety switch of his gun. “You’re worried about them?”

  “Aren’t you? Stay close.”

  The noise of the machines drew closer, rapidly. Out of the fog, four flat-bottomed scooters of some sort appeared, shaped otherwise like skimmers but held so low to the ground that their thrusters threw up tall plumes of water in their wake. Seth’s hopes for a peaceful encounter diminished when the sleds circled them and they saw four armed men, waving guns over their heads and whooping like adolescents on their first solo trip on a skimmer.

  He drew his own gun but the rider behind him approached closely and looped a rope around his arms and waist. The noose closed at once and he was thrown to the ground.

  “Hey!” Ciela shouted. She rushed to Seth who was struggling to keep his head above the swamp water as he tried to get up
on his knees.

  One of the men pulled up beside her and gripped the back of her vest. He dragged her for a moment before pulling her into the footwell in front of his seat. His boot held her down while his gun stabbed her neck.

  The others had come to a halt as well. Seth had risen onto his knees but when he tried to get up the man holding the rope heaved on it to force him down again. Tayako had no native sentient population and these thugs, under a crust of dirt, poorly-used clothes and tattoos, appeared to be Human or Feydan. Nothing about them suggested a rebel affiliation. None carried an oxygen supply; apparently they had been on the planet long enough to accustom themselves to the atmosphere. One of the men briefly left his skimmer to wrench Seth’s gun from his grip.

  “Let me go!” Ciela shouted and struggled against the boot pressing into her belly. In reply to that, the fist holding the gun to her head smashed into the side of her head.

  “What do you want,” Seth said, back on his feet now and furious over having been caught so easily out here.

  “We got what we want,” a Human whose entire head and face seemed to be covered in scraggly red hair answered. “They said there was a girl out here. A pretty girl worth a pretty coin. And a ship. Have you seen a ship out here?”

  Seth did not reply. The rope around his arms seemed to tighten with every move he tried to make.

  There was rough laughter and then the red man waved to two of his companions. “You take them back. We’ll see what else we can find out here.”

  Ciela shrieked when the sleds set in motion again. Seth twisted desperately when he was thrown down again, now dragged behind one of the skimmers. Bitter swamp water rushed into this nose and mouth and he struggled to gulp for air as best as he could. The hose feeding a thin stream of additional oxygen into his lungs tore away when the tank on his back slipped off his shoulder. Something scraped along his forearm; it seemed that submerged rocks were going to make matters much worse for him.

  Then it all stopped. The sound of the skimmers, the rush of muddy water, the lunatic whooping of the driver. The sled dragging him landed with a splash and Seth nearly collided with it before he also came to a halt. He scrambled to his knees and then up onto his feet to see Ciela struggling with her captor on the other vehicle. The man was doubled over and did not fight her when she grabbed for his gun and shot him.