Into the Light by Jane Wallace
Chapter 24

Dinner was twelve courses, each more delectable than the last. The cuisine was Charian with the odd Altan influence: snarp eggs with wheat toast, curried torte and the Selene delicacy, rare carpal steak with radish sauce. Seated under a pair of ornate and glittering chandeliers, the Infinity crew tucked in with relish.

‘How is the food?’ Voyov asked from the head of the darkly gleaming table.

‘Excellent,’ Sevin said. He sat on Voyov’s right as the guest of honour. ‘You have a talented chef.’

Voyov acknowledged the compliment with a nod. He had changed into a midnight-blue longcoat and his hair was tied back with a matching velvet ribbon.

‘I taught him everything I know,’ he said. ‘You will appreciate this, Major Sevin, that as pioneers to this planet we couldn’t have everything the same as back home. This, however, I expect you will recognise.’

He gestured to the waiter bringing in the last of the desserts on a silver salver. The waiter stopped by the table and lifted its lid slowly. Mouth-watering aromas crept out.

‘That ain’t apple squab?’ said Lauden.

‘It most certainly is.’ Hauki licked her lips.

‘Looks like old shoes,’ said Xin, eyeing the rings of dried fruit.

‘It’s a traditional Charian recipe, we usually have it at the winter festivals,’ Sevin told her. ‘It’s actually very tasty.’

‘Mmm, just like Mom made,’ she said, unconvinced.

‘This is a real treat for us, Mr Voyov, we don’t get so much home cookin’ in space,’ said Lauden. ‘I guess you guys can get whatever you want, even all the way out here.’

‘Actually, we are self-sufficient,’ said Voyov. ‘The planet is rich in flora, fauna and natural resources. The crystal for this table was mined the other side of the forest.’

‘Is that what the castle’s courtyard is made from?’ said Sevin.

‘Yes. We use an isotope of it to make the carbon fibre for the morphs.’

‘It’s a substantial facility you have here. How long has it been in operation?’

‘Too long,’ Derry said. He had been silent throughout the meal but had eaten noisily and drunk heavily. He took an unnecessarily large draft of drenna then banged the glass on the table. ‘Some of us want to leave this place, sooner rather than later.’

Voyov stared him down. ‘You had your opportunity, it’s not our fault you didn’t take it.’

‘Slave to the job, slave to you!’

‘You’ve had enough drenna, Derry, you must go to your room.’

The hunchback’s face fell. ‘Oh no! Mr Voyov, please no.’

‘You’re losing control.’

‘I didn’t mean it, I really didn’t. You know sometimes I say things I don’t mean when I’m tired, and I’m so tired. Please, don’t make me go, I’m sorry, I’ll do anything you want!’

‘Go to your room.’

Derry half stood up. ‘But Mr Voyov …’

‘Do it.’

Derry fell to his knees, hands clasped in supplication.

‘Go.’

With a gulp, Derry got up and ran out of the room.

Voyov turned to Sevin. ‘Please excuse him, he hasn’t been well recently. The work can be hard and not everyone adapts to conditions here. Although some, like Keris, like it so much they never leave. Isn’t that right? Keris?’

Keris was consulting her digi and had missed the conversation entirely. ‘Er, yes of course,’ she said, lifting her eyes briefly before resuming reading her messages.

‘You might find the same happens to you, Major Sevin.’

‘Never.’

‘Never?’ Voyov hung one arm over the back of his chair. ‘You seem so sure. How is that?’

‘I couldn’t work for an outfit that sells weapons to the Gharst.’

‘Ah, I see. Loyalties can be so inconvenient.’

Sevin heard his voice rise but couldn’t stop it. ‘Psi-Tech morphs on Gridon killed hundreds of Coalition troops, troops that I was commanding.’

‘But Psi-Tech had nothing to do with that. Psi-Tech may have made the morphs but Psi-Tech did not fire their weapons. That was the Gharst, they are responsible for the deaths, not Psi-Tech.’

‘Without the guns, they could not have killed those troops. Falkon Voyov, you are a native of Selene. You sold weapons to the Gharst to help them fight against the Coalition homeworlds. That makes you a traitor in my book.’

‘I am not a traitor, Major Sevin, I am a businessman. My imperative is to sell my product to the highest bidder. What the buyer chooses to do with that product is no concern of mine: I am beyond war, I am beyond peace. I continue to make and sell my product whatever the conditions. I will agree there is more money in war. Money for weapons, money for new ways to kill. But after the war, we find new uses for those inventions. Without that money and that war, we would not progress. War has lifted us out of the animal kingdom, without it we would have no society.’

‘You don’t have to murder to move forward.’

‘There is no incentive otherwise! Think about it. You are familiar with the nanofoam your ship is made of? Did you know it was created in the very laboratory you visited today? A byproduct of research into the armour plating we use on the Nightwatch. Everything is more connected than you think. It is human nature to fight, Major Sevin. Those who cannot become pioneers.’

Sevin leant forward to continue the argument, but thought better of it when he saw Xin shake her head, flagging up to him that he was unlikely to win the debate and to continue would be impolite.

Voyov folded his napkin precisely and laid it on the table. ‘Let us not talk of war,’ he said more amicably. ‘Particularly now it is over.’ He caught sight of Keris surreptitiously checking her timepiece. ‘Are we keeping you from something, my dear?’

‘Not really, but it is getting late.’

‘Yes, yes of course.’ He stood up. ‘Everyone will be here now and they are all very keen to meet you. Please enjoy a night-cap with them.’

They got up from the table and filtered back into the bar. It had filled with an even mix of men and women chatting animatedly over the steady beat of Auxo-pop. Behind the bar, a dance-floor and stage were being prepared, two staffers setting up instruments pending the arrival of their musicians. A yellowy brown haze hung in the air, pungent and sweet; several people were smoking small white pipes. Keris peeled off into a group of younger men who greeted her enthusiastically.

‘What would you like to drink?’ Voyov asked Sevin, summoning a waiter. ‘Kava, drenna? Or we have some fruit wines and cranbeer, an ale we make locally.’

‘Drenna, thanks. What’s everyone smoking?’

‘Lorq. It’s a mild stimulant derived from fungus which grows on the cassix trees. It’s quite harmless and certainly gives you less of a hangover than drenna.’ He gave the drinks order and continued: ‘Forgive me but I am tired and must go to bed. However, you will find plenty to entertain you down here. I can already see someone who wants to meet you. This is Morgan Lavay, coming through now. Enjoy your night!’

He melted into the throng as a slim, blond woman appeared at Sevin’s elbow. She looked to be in her early thirties and wore a low-cut cream dress. The soft folds of its skirt clung to her hips as she moved.

‘Major Tem Sevin?’ Her eyes were inviting.

He nodded, curious that she should know his name.

‘We’ve heard all about your arrival today,’ she said.

‘News must travel fast on Galeita.’

‘It’s a big event for small planet like us. Nice to meet you.’ She put out a hand. ‘I’m Morgan.’

‘Hello, Morgan.’ He took the hand and shook it.

‘Your ship needs repairs, is that right? What happened?’

‘Just wear and tear.’ Sevin didn’t feel the need to explain the effects of jumping a nexus.

‘Psi-Tech runs a massive shipyard very close to here, it should be easy enough to get you sorted out.’ She was still holding his hand, her eyes searching him as intently as if he were under a microscope.

’It’s already happened, thank you.’ He decided to steer the conversation away from Infinity. ‘Do you work for Psi-Tech too?’

‘Of course! Everyone here does. It’s a great company. Like you said about news travelling fast, it is a small community. We manage to have lots of fun though.’ She finally let go of his hand.

‘So what do you do?’

‘I’m in Research & Development.’

‘What are you researching?’

’Oh, all sorts of stuff, it changes all the time. At the moment, we’re trying to mimic nociceptors.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Nerve endings in human fingers and toes, the ones that detect pain.’

‘That sounds odd, do you want the morphs to feel pain?’

‘Yes, for the same reason humans do – so they can move away or stop something from damaging them!’

‘I’ll bet the Gharst could find a non-commercial use for that.’

‘Ah, let’s not talk about work,’ said Morgan, seeing his reaction. A waiter carrying a tray with a set of pipes pushed past them. ‘Have you tried our lorq?’

‘No.’

‘You should! It’s really good – makes you feel happy and relaxes your inhibitions.’ She shot him an openly suggestive look. ‘Don’t worry, it’s not addictive. See, your friends are trying it.’

Sevin looked around. Lauden teetered on a high stool at the bar, mesmerised by a nubile, dark-skinned woman in an amethyst mini-dress and high heels who was teaching him how to fill the pipe. Next to Lauden, Hauki was sharing a smoke with a jolly brunette of her own age while further away to the right, Xin was drinking a fruit juice and listening attentively to a middle-aged man with spectacles.

‘I’ll get you a pipe,’ Morgan said. ‘Back in a minute.’ She set off towards the dance-floor in pursuit of a lorq waiter. Lauden’s companion slipped away from the bar at the same time and Sevin approached him.

‘Enjoying your day?’ he quipped.

‘You betcha. Free drink, free snuck and great company. What more can you ask?’

‘Where’s your date?’ Sevin indicated the empty stool on the left.

‘Gone to get more lorq. Where’s yours?’

‘Same.’

‘That’s not like you, letting your hair down.’

‘She’s getting me a pipe, I didn’t say I’d smoke it.’ He took a swallow of drenna. ‘Your girl, she works for Psi-Tech too?’

‘Yup, seems like everyone here does, this is like the campus bar or something.’

Sevin looked around and began to feel out of place despite his new suit. Most of his fellow drinkers were under the age of thirty and wearing stylish clothes.

‘They’re pretty well-dressed for a bunch of scientists,’ he said. ‘Why d’you think they’re interested in us?’

‘Aw come on! It’s the romance, we’re travellers, ain’t we? Got a whole bunch of stories about foreign worlds and stuff,’ said Lauden, grinning as his companion returned. ‘Here she is! Desidata, please meet Major Tem Sevin.’

‘Hi there!’ she said, settling back on the stool. ‘You’re the big boss, right? Lauden’s told me all about ya!’

‘All the negatives, I expect,’ he said, looking her over. She was really very attractive, comely to the point of buxom and with a sassy attitude which reminded him very much of Tala Baran. Now he was closer, he could see she looked quite like her too. Lucky scrit, he thought. They were in the only bar on a planet in the middle of nowhere and Lauden still managed to find just his type.

‘Here’s something for you!’ Morgan was right behind him, equipped with paraphernalia. She squeezed into the tiny space at the bar between Lauden and Hauki and spread the apparatus on the counter. Sevin looked over her shoulder. ‘The element switches on here.’ She showed him the button to press on the pipe. ‘Then you put the pellet in on top. Wait until it heats up and the smoke starts to come out, there, like that. Now it’s ready.’

He took the pipe and inhaled deeply. It tasted strongly of vanilla. Immediately he felt a sense of well-being.

‘Good, isn’t it?’

‘Yes,’ he said, taking another toke. It made him dizzy and he couldn’t help laughing at the effect before he considered it safer to hand the pipe back to her.

‘You look nice when you smile,’ she said.

He looked deep into her eyes, noticing for the first time that they were a shade of honey he had never seen on anyone except Atare. He blinked, wondering if the drug was confusing him. She gazed up at him, her lips parted. He was tempted to lean forward and kiss them when the recorded music stopped. The band were coming on stage, an all-girl five-piece in blue sequinned leotards. They swung into an old Charian favourite.

Morgan put a hand on his chest. ‘They’re playing “The One I Love”,’ she said. ‘Do you want to dance?’

He found that he did. He put his empty glass on the bar and said in Lauden’s ear: ‘We’re going to dance.’

‘Oh yeah, over there?’ Lauden flicked his hand so flamboyantly towards the band that the pipe sailed out of it, dropping on the bar from where it bounced on to Desidata’s lap then slid off, leaving its smouldering tablet on her thigh.

‘Hey, that’s burning you!’ said Sevin, brushing off the embers. The skin underneath was red and puckered. ‘Are you alright?’

‘Yeah fine, didn’t feel a thing!’ She dazzled him with a grateful smile before turning to Lauden. ‘Careful now, sugar!’

‘I’m so sorry, sweetheart, you okay?’

‘Never better, for real.’ She shifted her handbag so it covered the spot but not before Sevin saw the wound close over and regenerate so not even a crease was visible on the perfect skin.

‘Shall we dance?’ Morgan was tugging at his hand. Sevin backed away from the bar and followed her on autopilot, thinking hard. He had never seen skin heal like that, ever. Not human skin anyway. There was one explanation for why that could happen - Desidata had to be a morph. A highly sophisticated biomorph run on the kind of artificial intelligence he assumed was yet to be invented. But a robot nonetheless. He looked around him. The bar was packed. There were about two hundred people, chatting, drinking and smoking. Were they all morphs? He screened every face they passed, testing his theory. They all seemed human to him.

The rhythm of the music was irresistible and Sevin couldn’t help nodding along in time as they arrived at the dance-floor. Around them, couples danced in a variety of styles, some holding close together, some keeping apart. Sevin took Morgan’s hand. It was warm and he stroked the bones through its back, feeling knuckles underneath the warm skin. For a synthetic, it felt pretty genuine. He wondered if her rounded hips were equally authentic.

‘Can you five-time?’ he asked.

‘Of course, you lead.’

They joined the dance, performing the intricate steps with ease. She matched his movements as instinctively as if they had melded into one. He could control her as effortlessly as his own arms and legs, twirling and lifting her with an exhilarating confidence. As the music slowed, he held her close in the final position, feeling her chest extending and falling, her breathing harder from the effort of the dance. Compelled, he bent closer to the hollows and mounds where the dress delineated her breasts, inhaling a familiar smell of sandalwood. The memory of carrying Atare off her wrecked ship smacked into him. He recoiled as if bitten.

‘What’s the matter, you’re a natural!’ she said, pulling him towards her so that their bodies touched at every point. He looked down at her, unable to move away, searching her face for answers and becoming even more confused. He was seeing things. Honey eyes, immaculate skin and a moistly sensuous mouth: save for the feathers, she was an exact replica of Atare. He stopped thinking, itching to run the shoulder-length locks of blond hair, paler on the crown, darker underneath, through his fingers. He closed his eyes, wanting her so badly that he felt himself at the edge of sanity. She was a morph, it didn’t matter, he told himself, caressing her neck with his mouth, revelling in the intoxicating scent. She pressed herself against him so he could feel her breasts and hip bones.

‘Shall we go somewhere else?’ she whispered close to his mouth.

’Wherever you want,’ he said. The band had started up again and he let her lead him through the swaying couples towards the glowing exit sign at the back of the dance-floor.

ζ

‘Here’s the original fungus, growing on the bark.’ Professor Qing handed a clear-sided box to Xin. They were standing next to the main bench in what Qing called his laboratory on the first floor of the castle. It looked more like a greenhouse. Shelves of plants in the windows were stacked midway to the ceiling and there were tanks covering one wall, many with sprouting seedlings under bright artificial spotlights inside. The room was humid and smelt of foliage.

Xin screwed up her eyes to look at the twig. ‘You mean the pink fluff?’

’Yes, lorqus vulgaris, very difficult to spot. We should produce it commercially, we’d make a fortune!’

‘Interesting,’ said Xin, examining the tiny strands. ‘How did you discover it?’

‘Well, it was Mr Voyov who found it, not me. When he first arrived on Galeita, he made a comprehensive study of the native plants and animals. I think he came across it by accident rather than design.’

‘Serendipitous.’ She smiled at him, thinking that word could also apply to her meeting the tall, bespectacled scientist. The past few hours had flown by. It was so refreshing to talk with like-minded individuals. Atare could keep up to a certain extent but she didn’t share the breadth of Xin’s knowledge. Qing, on the other hand, was a font of wisdom as well as being engaging company. Old enough to be her father, the gap in their ages made no difference to the conversation.

‘Here it is in the early stage of cultivation.’ He passed over another box of matted fur. ‘We let it expand until it’s about five times the size of that.’

‘It grows quickly then?’

‘Like wildfire!’ He smiled at her. ‘D’you want to see the final phase?’

‘Sure.’

‘Here.’ He tapped the front of a large polypro dome at the end of the bench.

‘But it’s blue!’

‘Yes, the process of spore creation has that effect. Now it’s ready to harvest.’

‘That’s fast. How long is the total growth period?’

‘Twenty-four hours.’

‘Twenty-four hours?’ Xin frowned. ‘From start to finish?’

‘Twenty-four hours.’

‘Really? But it’s organic, that’s very unusual. Don’t you mean twenty-four days?’

‘Twenty-four hours,’ he repeated.

‘You must be mistaken.’ She glanced at the label on the early-stage box. ‘Look, it says here that this is six days old! You mean twenty-four days.’

‘It is twenty-four hours. Twenty-four hours. The data is recorded as twenty-four hours. The data is recorded… The data…’ His mouth locked.

‘Professor?’

‘There is a malfunction in the routing system.’ Qing’s eyes were staring straight ahead and his lips did not move. The voice now seemed to be coming from his chest. ‘There is a major fault,’ it said. ‘This session is terminated. You are advised to call your nearest Psi-Tech service centre. Enjoy your day!’

The professor stumped to the nearest chair and fell into it, his head fixed at an unnatural angle to his chest.

Xin checked the body. He wasn’t breathing and there was no pulse. She dropped the professor’s wrist as the reality hit her. Qing Rongjin was a morph. How could she have not noticed? She had drunk very little and she certainly hadn’t had any lorq. Then she thought of the others who had: Sevin with that blond woman who looked like she’d eat him for breakfast, Lauden and Miss Obvious, even Hauki. If all the Psi-Tech people were morphs, where were Sevin and everyone now?

An amber light started flashing on the ceiling next to what could be a camera mounting. She checked on the professor. There were red spots of light in his unfocused eyes. The malfunction had obviously triggered an alarm.

’Time to go,’ she told herself. She put the specimen box under her arm, checked the beads were set to the prearranged coordinates and yanked on the breaker. The tingling in the back of her neck began as the laboratory door burst open with the weight of two Nightwatch morphs behind it.

η

‘So where are we?’

’A secret place, one of my retreats. I come here when I need to think, I find it peaceful. D’you like it?’

Morgan had brought Sevin to another summerhouse, similar to the one that held the elevator shaft to the Underlake but further around the shoreline. In the centre of its circular interior was a round bed with four posts, draped with a red throw and strewn with white petals. A tray of drinks sat on a sideboard carved to fit snugly against the bowed wall.

‘Very much,’ he said, drawing her to him and brushing his lips against hers. He found the zipper at the back of her dress and pulled it down, releasing her from its confines. Underneath she had a cream silk camisole which tantalisingly concealed and revealed the generous curves of her breasts. Her tongue teased his lips as she began to undo the hooks of his jacket, reaching inside to rub his nipples through the thin material of the shirt. He tensed with pleasure as she smoothed the jacket over his shoulders and let it slip to the floor.

‘Take this off,’ she said, pinching at the shirt. He removed it and her hands travelled over the hard pectorals of his chest to massage his collarbone and encircle his neck.

‘You’re beautiful,’ she murmured, her mouth closing onto his again, her fingers playing the sensitive spots around his ears. Then there was a sharp tug around his neck as she got hold of the breaker and dragged it free. A kick in his groin doubled him over.

‘Hey!’ Overcoming the blow, Sevin raced after her as she made for the door, catching her forearm. ‘So that’s what you wanted. You certainly went the long way round to get it.’ He chopped her hard on the shoulder and, as she buckled, kneed her in the windpipe. Grabbing her right arm, he twisted it behind her, forcing her face down on to the floor. She shrieked as if in genuine pain, which he disregarded as an automated response. Keeping her down, he shook the breaker out of her hand and stuffed it in his trouser pocket.

‘Let go! You’re really hurting me.’

‘Not till I’ve turned you off. Where’s the controls?’ His hand searched her ribcage under the silky camisole.

‘Get off me!’ With a strength he didn’t expect, she spun around on the floor so he ended up holding her arm against her stomach and she was lashing him with her free hand and kicking any available part of his body. He released her arm to seize her by the neck.

‘Where’s the control panel?’

‘I’m not a morph!’ she gasped, trying to pull his hands away.

As her face started to contort and go red, it was obvious she was telling the truth. He let her go and she rolled on her side into a ball, hacking and coughing. He stood over her until she sat up.

‘You nearly killed me, you savage.’

He walked over to where his shirt lay on the floor and picked it up. ‘Your intentions weren’t exactly honourable,’ he said, pulling it over his head. ‘So you’re not a morph. Who are you?’

‘I am Sabasha Voyov.’

‘Falkon’s daughter?’ He was shocked.

‘Unfortunately.’ She took the hand he offered to help her up. ‘I don’t blame you for being confused. You originally met Morgan, an HN3 himeron, one of father’s most advanced models. I intercepted her on the way to get your lorq - disabled her temporarily and swapped clothes. You danced with me.’

‘Why?’

‘I saw you arrive, by teleport. I’ve not seen it done before and it got me thinking that if I could get one of the necklaces you used, maybe I could get out of here.’

‘You can’t just leave?’

‘I’ve been under lock and key for the last twenty years. You, Major Sevin, are the first real opportunity I’ve had to escape.’

‘Escape from what?’

‘I’m an embarrassment, one of the many experiments that went wrong.’ She gazed at him, half-exasperated, half-amused. ‘Do you want to see what I really look like? It’s beyond ugly.’

‘Alright.’

As she lifted her chin, the conventional features softened into an amorphous mass of pulsing pigments. Instead of the normal angles of cheekbones and nose, strange contours heaved up and down like a kind of bubbling primeval mud. Not a single point of colour or structure remained fixed, the patterns constantly changing.

‘I was six years old. I begged them not to do it.’ A dark hole emerged from the region where a mouth would be located. ‘It was terrifying, I still need drugs now to manage the pain. But he went ahead with it anyway. My mother supported him, she thought it was for the best. They took away my face, my identity removed in a single slice.’ The voice paused. ‘Seen enough?’

‘Yes.’ He struggled to keep his eyes on the nightmarish vision. She took his hand briefly and the blurry pixels rearranged into the pseudo-features of Atare.

‘I don’t understand,’ he said. ‘You have a face. In fact, you look like one of my crew members.’

Sabasha let out a deep sigh. ‘You’ve done the tour, I suppose? Well, I won’t go over the same ground but it’s still a long story, take a seat.’ She sat down on the bed and patted the space next to her. Sevin took it.

‘As you know, my father was a well-respected bioengineer at the University of Pramis,’ she began. ‘Mother was, as well, but he was higher profile because he was also a director of the board of Psi-Tech, the family firm. What the tour doesn’t tell you is why we came here originally. Basically, rumours started about his experiments at the university, that real humans were being used. There was an enquiry, but it was inconclusive. The scandal was enough to drive us out, though, and we came here. That was twenty years ago. Father built everything from scratch. Not by himself of course,’ she said, interpreting Sevin’s raised eyebrows. ‘The morphs did the work.’

‘You were the object of the rumours?’

‘Yes. I was a child. If the authorities had discovered what he’d done, the penalty would have been severe. We would definitely have lost the firm.’

‘Why did he do it?’

‘Psi-Tech was very profitable, even back then. We were phenomenally wealthy by Selene standards. In those days, kidnap and ransom was common and the chances of me getting snatched were high. But if I could change my face, then potential kidnappers would never know whether it was me or not. My parents thought of it as a way to protect me. That was their reasoning, anyway.’

‘So he erased your face?’

‘Not quite. I was supposed to be able to control it myself and be able to default to my own features. But he installed the responder variety he was testing at the time – the one the himerons run now.’

‘Himerons?’

‘Yes, desire machines, like Morgan. Father wanted to create the ultimate robot, one which anticipates your greatest desire and meets it. Your will is their command, that sort of thing. Anyway, he wired the responder into the wrong synapses. I have no control over it and so I have no face of my own. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, that’s true for me. I can only be seen as another wants me to be. And before you ask, no, it can’t be reversed.’

‘I still don’t understand. How do you know how I like you to look? You didn’t ask.’

‘You want to know the trade secret? Alright. The system makes some assumptions on first sight of the target, but I have to make physical contact with you for it to work fully.’ She took his hand, feeling for the veins at the base of his palm. ‘My detectors measure the electrical activity in your brain as you react to tiny changes in my appearance. Those changes are happening so fast that your conscious mind doesn’t notice them but your subconscious does. Obviously there is greater activity when you see colouring or a facial feature that you like, so the system orders the colour management to change my hair or face or eyes to suit. Got a thing for highlights, haven’t you?’ She put down his wrist with a wry smile.

He withdrew his hand, thinking about Lauden’s girl who looked like his wife, Hauki’s female companion, Xin’s older man. And for himself? Sabasha had turned into Atare. Now he understood why he was always so awkward in her presence.

‘All those people in the bar,’ he asked. ‘They were all himerons?’

‘Yes. After it went wrong with me, Father restricted himself to morphs. At least, that’s what he told me. I’ve tried to talk to him, find a way out for myself but he won’t listen. He used to be such a different person before Keris arrived. She’s had a hold over him ever since she joined the firm. They were having an affair, although I think that’s over now. He still lets her do exactly what she wants.’

‘And you’re the only humans here? Along with Derry?’

‘There are some others.’

‘Where?’

‘Did you hear any howling today?’

‘Yes, at the animal sanctuary.’

‘Might as well be. I try and help them, but it’s a lost cause. Some of the experimentees are insane. That’s the trouble with getting everything you want all the time. Suicide is a common result. Then, of course, there are the people who get addicted. They can never leave Galeita.’

Sevin was reminded of Derry’s distress at being sent to his room for the night and Keris’ impatience to get to the bar. They were prisoners too.

A siren started outside and she jumped up. ‘They’ve found out I’ve gone. Quick, you must hide, they’ll be here in seconds. Oh, if they catch me out here they’ll cut my dose again!’ She hugged her shoulders as if cold. ‘Yet another reason why I can’t get out of here, I wouldn’t know where to get the medicine.’

Long beams reached in through the windows. Searchlights were combing the sky above the castle. ‘I have to go,’ she said, struggling into her dress and turning around so Sevin could fasten it. ‘You should too, you’ll be next in the bell jar if they catch you. That’s what happens to all visitors.’ She hurried towards the door, pulling a mauve cloak off a hatstand on the way and swirling it around her.

‘What do you mean? What’s he going to do to us?’

‘The himerons have been programmed to take you to your rooms and sedate you. Then the Nightwatch will move you to the main laboratory for testing, where you were today, the red door. You have to leave, now!’

He must have looked forlorn because she returned to the centre of the room to embrace him. She stepped back, holding his hands, gazing at him with golden eyes. When she spoke, he heard Atare’s voice.

‘I like you, you’re different to the others, you’re brave and strong, a war hero,’ she said. ‘We could be together forever, I could be whatever you want me to be. Take me with you back to your ship. I could fulfil your every desire, every day for every year. Would you like that, Tem? Would you like to be always satisfied?’

He would, he would like that very much. Sevin gently stroked his fingertip along her eyebrow, touching her cheek and her lips, wanting to kiss her again, wanting to carry off this enchanting woman to a farflung galaxy. But as he lingered on Atare’s features, he thought of the genuine article waiting for him on Infinity.

Reluctantly he let go of her hands. ‘I would like nothing more and that’s the truth. But I have a mission, I have to go somewhere. It’s a long and dangerous journey and the risks are high – even in your current position you would be safer here. And … there is someone else.’

‘The crew mate I look like? Lucky girl.’

‘She probably wouldn’t think so. Go now, go quickly, back to where you have to be. I’ll rescue the others, then, if I can, I’ll help you, I promise.’

‘Very well.’ She looked as if she didn’t believe him. ‘Goodbye then, Tem.’ She kissed him chastely on the cheek then lowered the cloak’s hood over her forehead. She opened the door cautiously, looking left to right, and then stepped out.

Sevin found his jacket and put it on, thinking Lauden’s callsign to his novo but getting no response. He tried Hauki and Xin with the same result. Planning the fastest route to the laboratory, he went out of the summerhouse into the now much colder air.

’Major Sevin?’ a voice inquired politely. The same staffer who had guided him from the castle’s atrium to the Underlake was waiting for him. This time he was accompanied by two Nightwatch, both with their blaster arms pointed at Sevin.

‘If you’d like to come with us, please,’ the staffer said, ‘Mr Voyov is waiting for you.’

θ

Marik was watching the live flickball match between Auxo Gladiators and DC Escovar at the comms desk on Infinity’s bridge when there was a crash from behind. He rushed to the teleport suite where Xin had materialised in the number one cabinet.

‘You alright?’ he asked, helping her step down. ‘Hey, nice dress!’

‘It came at a price,’ Xin said, shaking the capacitors out of the elegant handbag which completed the outfit. ‘We’ve got a major problem.’

‘You’re back early!’ Atare strolled into the suite. ‘Where’s everyone else?’

‘Still down there, I hope.’ She explained what had happened with the professor.

‘You know, there were rumours that Voyov experimented on humans when he was a professor at UOP,’ said Atare, looking concerned. ‘It was a big scandal about twenty years ago, I’ve been doing some more research while you’ve been away.’

‘I’m sure that’s what he’s planning for Sevin and the others. I’m going back down, with guns.’

‘I’ll come with you,’ said Atare.

‘Thanks, I could use the help.’

‘No, you stay here, I’ll go with you,’ said Marik.

‘Atare’s just offered!’

‘Atare should stay up here and fit the capacitors. We’ll need to get the hell out if it’s as bad as you say. I’m the expendable one, so you keep saying, I should go down with you.’

Xin stared at him, unable to refute his argument.

He put his hands on his hips. ‘For the love of heaven! Look Xin, I know you don’t like me. I don’t care much for you either, believe it or not, but we’re talking about another hostage rescue situation and this is the most sensible way to handle it. I’m coming with you, whether you like it or not. From what you’re saying, other people’s lives depend on it!’

It was clear he would not back down. She breathed out her exasperation in a loud huff. ‘If you must,’ she said, walking past him to the door of the armoury. She smacked the open button. ‘Let’s get kitted up.’

‘Finally some sense!’ said Marik, joining her in the secure room and selecting a pulsar and some grenades.

Xin filled her handbag with hardware and walked back to the teleport suite. ‘There’s the capacitors,’ she told Atare, pointing to the pile she’d made on the floor. ‘Can you install them?’

‘Of course.’

‘And can you analyse this?’ She handed over the specimen box of lorq. ‘It’s a fungus with hallucinogenic properties. Can you see if you can find an antidote? We might need one.’

‘No problem.’

Xin marched over to first cabinet and prepared to get in.

‘Don’t you want to get changed?’ asked Atare.

‘No time,’ Xin said, climbing inside as Marik got into the number two cabinet. ‘I’m not sure where the others are. You’d better put us down in the same place as before.’

’Okay.’ Atare moved to the teleport console and keyed in the coordinates. ‘Good luck,’ she said, her hand lifted in a hesitant wave as the two figures shuddered then evanesced on their way back to Voyov’s castle of horrors.

ι

‘Ah, Major Sevin, glad you could join us.’ Voyov, dressed in a lab coat, was wiping his hands on a towel as the Nightwatch shoved Sevin through the red door which Sevin had failed to penetrate earlier. It had been an uncomfortable ride by velo to the factory complex, although having his hands manacled behind his back was less problematic than the thought of what was waiting at the end of the journey.

‘Your timing is impeccable,’ Voyov continued, snapping on some latex gloves. ‘I was going to use Lauden but now you’re here, we may as well start with you.’ He moved to the other side of the room to check on the syringes laid out on the top shelf of a metal trolley, letting Sevin see behind him. Lauden was slumped on a chair inside a transparent crate four metres high and one metre wide. There were similar structures either side. One held a woman with ugly scarring across her hairless scalp, sitting with her arms around her knees, rocking backwards and forward. In the other was a man, or what had been a man. The arms which he pounded against the sides of his prison were truncated at the elbow and his face was a swollen pulpy mess which obscured the eyes, if there were any. The crate next to him was empty.

‘Don’t feed the one at the end, he’s a bit wild,’ said Voyov.

‘What have you done to Lauden?’ said Sevin.

‘Just a few tests. He’s fine, he’s sedated, as you will be.’ He gestured to the Nightwatch who grabbed Sevin’s forearms. ‘Put him in the last jar. And get that necklace off him.’

‘You’re mad. What you’re doing is evil.’

Voyov ignored him, answering a digi strapped to his wrist as the Nightwatch heaved Sevin into the crate, tore off his breaker, removed his novo and sealed the door shut.

Finishing the call, Voyov observed Sevin through the polypro divide. ‘Seems one of your crew is causing trouble in the castle. Such bad manners, I’ll have to sort it out. Don’t go away now.’ He spluttered a few laughs and quit the room, the Nightwatch following him.

As soon as he was alone, Sevin tried to figure out a means of escape. The door was firm and the sides too slippery for climbing. Even jumping from the chair inside the crate, he could not reach the top. The crazy man gurned at him, giggling at his futile attempts to break out. Sevin stared back, then past him to Lauden and the rocking woman beyond. Her motion gave him an idea. He spread his arms so his hands touched either side of the crate and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. There was a movement. If he could generate enough momentum, the crate would topple over, allowing him to crawl out. He increased the effort, hurling himself at the see-through barriers between him and his freedom. The force was not enough, the crate would not fall over. After a final push, he stopped, wiping the moisture from his forehead.

‘Sevin? What are you doing in there?’

He whipped around to see the slightly blurred image of Atare perusing him from the outside.

‘Thank the gods - what’s it look like? Trying to get out!’

‘How do I open it?’

He pointed to the controls. She pressed the button and he was out before her finger had left the touchpad.

‘What are you doing here? You should be on the ship,’ he said.

‘Ship? What are you talking about? I should be in bed, so should you. It’s really late. I’ve spent a long time looking for you.’ As she pursed her lips, he saw her eyes were blue.

‘Sabasha?’

‘I’m Morgan! We met in the bar a few hours ago, don’t you remember?’

‘Of course. You disappeared.’

She looked confused. ‘I woke up in the toilets. I guess I must have blacked out. It’s never happened before, maybe I had too much lorq.’

‘Maybe. How did you know I was here?’

‘I used my locator.’

Sevin assumed she had planted some tracking device on him in the bar. He wondered who had sent her.

‘You came all this way to find me?’ he asked.

‘Yes, I felt that I should.’

Your will is their command, he heard Sabasha say again. Morgan must still be acting on the previous command: to please Sevin in whatever way possible. Any instructions to the contrary had obviously been sent during the time she was disabled and had not, or not yet, been received.

‘That’s so kind.’ He took her hand then let it go, remembering what contact could do. ‘Can you help me get Lauden out? Then perhaps we can all go back to the bar.’

‘Sure.’

Together they opened Lauden’s crate and tried to bring him round.

‘Get her out of here!’ shouted Lauden when he opened his eyes. ‘They’re all tinnies trying to get us killed!’

‘It’s alright, this one’s friendly,’ said Sevin, helping Lauden out.

‘Maybe he’s hallucinating,’ said Morgan.

‘Probably,’ Sevin reassured her. ‘It must be the lorq, he’s not used to it. Listen, we have to find our friends, why don’t you wait for us in here? It’s dangerous outside at this time of night, you’ll be much safer inside.’ He assisted the willing morph into Lauden’s vacated seat and closed the door on her.

‘What’s that about?’ said Lauden, staring at Morgan who waved at him cutely.

‘Security,’ said Sevin, retrieving their confiscated breakers and novos from a side bench. He gave Lauden a breaker. ‘Let’s go back to the ship and get some guns. Then we can hit the castle. I think Xin and Hauki must still be there.’

κ

Xin and Marik materialised on the same gravelled path in the formal gardens where Xin had first landed. This time, daylight was replaced by the bilious glow emanating from the living pyramid three hundred metres away. It was bright enough for them to be seen if anyone was looking out from the castle.

’Over there,’ Xin told Marik by novo, indicating a hedge with her pulsar. They ran towards it, the scrunching of their feet as noisy as fireworks. They squashed themselves against the spiky twigs and contemplated their objective.

’Extreme!’ thought Marik to his novo. ‘What’s it made of?’

’Plant matter, probably fused with some mineral compound,’ came the reply.

’How do we get in?’

’There’s an entrance at the back. I’ll take the left, you take the right. There’s a statue of a goddess ten metres from the door. We’ll meet there.’

’Okay.’

’You’ll pass an animal sanctuary in the trees on the way, don’t let them hear you.’

Marik took off, keeping low and ploughing across the flower beds to avoid disturbing the shale on the paths. Xin scanned the layout ahead, spotting a flat area of grass like a games lawn to her left. That route would take her out of the gardens and into the parkland. She could then approach the rear of the castle surreptitiously through the woods. She listened hard. It was quiet except for the wind in the leaves. Keeping her back to the hedge, she started moving towards the lawn, taking care to stay close to the roots of the bushes where there weren’t so many stones.

She reached a corner in the hedge where it ran off to the left. Across the metre-wide path was an opening in the line of knee-high shrubs which marked out the area of the lawn. She paused, looking both ways, preparing to step on the path, when a sheet of silk bagged over her head and upper body, blinding her. She struggled against it, swiping at the inside of the material which drew tighter around her. ‘Marik!’ she screamed silently to her novo as a heavy weight jumped on her back and forced her to the ground.

‘Stay still and you won’t get hurt,’ said a woman’s voice as the pulsar was pried from her hand. The nub of it was rammed in her neck while her assailant investigated the contents of her handbag. The weight lifted from her back but the pulsar stayed in position.

‘I want you to get up very slowly,’ said the voice. ‘You can take the hood off but no sudden movements or I will fire.’

Xin pulled herself up, fighting to free herself from the tangle. Throwing it off, she saw it was a dark-coloured cloak. She turned to face her adversary and was stunned to see her crew mate.

‘Atare, what are you doing? Put the pulsar down!’

‘I’m not Atare,’ said the woman.

Xin looked closer. The woman’s features were similar but not an exact match. As for her hair, in the green light, she couldn’t really be sure what colour it was.

‘Who are you?’ Xin asked.

‘Sabasha Voyov,’ said the woman, moving closer.

‘Falkon’s daughter?’

’Prisoner, but I’ve escaped. They’re trying to catch me, to put me back in my cell. You’re one of Sevin’s team from Infinity, I saw you arrive the first time and just now. Give me your breaker.’

‘No.’ Xin put her hands to her throat.

‘I’m not afraid to kill you.’ Sabasha stepped forward again, holding out her hand. ‘Give me the breaker or I’ll shoot.’

‘No you won’t.’

Sabasha choked as an arm encircled her neck and a pulsar jammed its nose in her ear.

‘Drop the gun,’ said Marik, ‘or I will kill you.’

‘Okay, okay!’ She let the pulsar fall and Xin picked it up, casting a grateful glance at Marik. Sabasha started to batter Marik’s imprisoning arm. ‘Let go, will you! What is it with you people? Sevin strangled me half to death, now you’re having a go.’

‘You’ve seen Sevin?’ said Marik, releasing her.

‘Yes,’ she said, brushing herself off. ‘He said he was going to rescue you. He promised he’d help me afterwards.’

‘How long ago was that?’ Xin asked, thinking Sevin’s callsign to her novo. It rang out.

‘About an hour. I haven’t seen him or any of you until now. I hope he’s alright.’

There was a loud humming and flares in the sky. A group of six velos with rotating searchlights was taking off from the castle courtyard.

‘They’re coming for me!’ said Sabasha, clutching at Marik’s arm. ‘I don’t care what you do to me but please, take me with you - don’t let them get me!’

Her fear seemed genuine, Xin thought, watching her cling to Marik with the desperation of the drowning. If Sevin had promised her his help, they should at least offer their assistance. She raised her eyebrows at Marik who shrugged.

‘You said you’re not afraid to kill?’ Xin asked her.

‘No, I’m not.’

‘Well, now’s your chance. You found the trigger already, the power monitor’s on the handhold. It’s full.’ Xin handed her the pulsar.

She took it, gently and with respect. ‘Thanks,’ she said.

’Now we have to find the others,’ said Marik. ‘Show us the best way into the castle.’

λ

With a little luck and a good guess at the coordinates, Sevin and Lauden teleported right into the castle’s third floor. Xin’s room was nearest and they went there first. Finding it empty, they headed straight for Hauki’s accommodation across the corridor. They tried the door handle, it was locked.

‘On three,’ Sevin told Lauden. ‘One, two, three.’ Lauden’s shoulder crashed into the wooden panels and they burst into an unexpectedly domestic scene. A fire burned in a grate. In a wing-backed armchair pulled up close to the hearth, Hauki sat with a boy of about eight years old in her lap. They had been asleep, a storybook lay where it had fallen on to the floor. Hauki’s eyes were now wide with alarm, the smash of the door having jerked her awake.

‘Sevin, what is it?’ she said, cross at being disturbed.

‘Are you alright?’ asked Sevin.

‘Of course I’m alright, I was asleep. Sssh, don’t wake him up.’ She gently brushed the fringe off the boy’s forehead. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Voyov’s a crazy, he wants us for guinea pigs,’ said Lauden. ‘We gotta get out of here before he turns us into morphs or worse!’

‘What? What are you talking about?’

‘Falkon Voyov is trying to catch us so he can use us for whatever bioengineering experiment he needs to do next,’ Sevin said. ‘The new clothes, the food and drink, the people we met – it’s all bait to lead us straight to his laboratory. We’ve just escaped from there.’

‘Holy mother!’

Sevin pointed at the child on her lap. ‘He’s a himeron, a special biomorph designed by Voyov to pick up your innermost desires and meet them.’

‘Don’t be daft, he’s just a kid – Cadie’s son, the woman I met at the bar. There was some crisis down at the factory, she asked if I could mind him while she sorted it out.’ She held the boy to her so tightly that he woke up. Big eyes searched the two visitors.

‘Auntie Hauki, who’s that?’

‘It’s alright, Max, they’re friends.’

‘I’m scared, Auntie,’ he said, burrowing under her arms for shelter.

‘Back off with the guns, Sevin, you’re frightening him.’

Sevin stood his ground. ‘Hauki, he’s a morph. So is his mother or whatever else she claimed to be in the bar. Put him down.’

‘He’s a child, he’s got nothing to do with this himeron stuff, leave him alone.’ She held the boy’s head to her shoulder, glaring at the men.

‘Look at his eyes,’ said Sevin.

‘What?’

‘Look at his eyes!’

Hauki lifted the boy’s head. He had gone strangely rigid. His eyes were wide open and dots of red lights showed through the irises.

‘Oh my good mother.’

A bell started ringing in the corridor outside. ‘That’s it,’ said Sevin, pulling the morph from her arms and offloading it on to a nearby sofa. ‘There must be a surveillance device inside, it’s set off an alarm. Any idea where Xin is?’

‘Next door?’

‘No.’

‘I reckon we don’t have to look too far,’ said Lauden from beside the window. ‘There’s a shoot-out in the courtyard, a bunch of Nightwatch going for it, big time. Reckon she’s down there.’ The unmistakeable wailing of blasters reached their ears. Sevin tried her novo again.

’Under attack in front gardens,’ came the response.

’Maintain position, we’re coming in,’ he thought back. ‘Just got her on the novo and you’re right, Lauden,’ he said, passing Hauki his spare pulsar. ‘Let’s give her a hand. I’m not sure of the coordinates, we’ll have to go on foot.’

They left Hauki’s room and sneaked along the empty gallery to the steps down to the second floor, looking over the railings into the atrium and the balconies below which remained empty. The alert was still sounding as they approached the stairwell. About two metres across, it was enclosed by the walls of the rooms on both sides and had the exterior sloping roof of the pyramid for its ceiling.

’Scout ahead,’ Sevin thought to Lauden. Lauden descended cautiously, unable to see much more than the strip of landing on the second floor. Sevin and Hauki kept watch on the third level galleries and the atrium.

’It’s clear,’ Sevin heard his novo say and he motioned to Hauki to follow Lauden. They had started down the steps when they heard Lauden say ‘scrit!’ and saw him backing up the steps.

’Nightwatch, about twenty, both directions – run!’

‘Up,’ said Sevin. Hauki and he about-turned and started to mount the stairs as black figures ran on to the landing above: ten Nightwatch. He looked down to see Lauden with his hands in the air, a similar number of Nightwatch below. They were trapped inside the staircase.

‘A shame it should come to this,’ said Voyov, his slight frame emerging from behind the Nightwatch stationed on the higher level. ‘It’s so much better when people come willingly.’

’We won’t be any experiment of yours,’ said Sevin. ’Infinity will blast this planet apart before you get anywhere near us.’

‘I’m sure she can, but I’d like to show you to someone first. Bring them to the courtyard.’

He waved on the morphs who rounded them down the remaining flights of stairs to ground level where they were marched across the atrium to the front gate and across the shining courtyard, Voyov following at a distance. When they reached the head of the white marble steps to the garden, they were made to halt. Whatever pulse was being exchanged in the garden below ceased abruptly.

’Hold your fire!’ Voyov’s voice rang out. ‘I know you’re out there, Sabasha. I’ve got some of your friends here. Give yourself up and they won’t come to any harm.’

μ

Xin and her party had managed to advance as far as the games lawn when they came under fire. The attack sent them running for cover inside the small pavilion at its end. They blundered past stacked chairs, a broken table and a box of assorted bats and rackets to get to the two windows at the back of the single room. One was open. Marik stood beside it, pulsar aimed towards the castle. The women crouched beneath the sill of the other, hands over their heads as the blaster fire whined and scorched into the wooden fabric of their shelter.

‘Four enemy positions,’ said Marik, ‘about three guns each.’ He took a few carefully aimed shots then hunkered down. ‘If they send the velos in, we’re finished.’

‘Just heard from Sevin,’ Xin said. ‘He’s coming down!’

‘He better be quick, we’re not going to hold out for long against twelve.’ Marik looked worried, the first time Xin had ever seen him so.

‘We’ll be alright,’ she said.

‘Yeah.’

‘We will.’ Hardly believing she was doing it, she held out her hand to Marik. Taken aback, he squeezed her fingers briefly then stood up. ‘Let’s get them!’ he said, lashing the nearest group with sonic beam.

Sabasha had got the other window open and was shooting at the furthest position on the right hand edges of the garden.

‘They’re coming closer!’ she shouted, dipping down as a charge slammed into the slats above the window.

‘Keep firing,’ said Xin, pumping beam at anything which moved.

They continued trading fire with their attackers but it was increasingly obvious that the enemy was gaining the upper hand as the shrieking of the blasters became louder and nearer. Knowing it was hopeless, Marik stepped back from the window to consult with Xin on their next move. She was staring at something in the middle of the gardens.

‘What is it?’ he asked.

‘Look – the terrace, by the steps.’

A squad of Nightwatch morphs were parading their prisoners: Hauki, Sevin and Lauden.

’We’re taken,’ she heard in her ear.

’We know,’ she thought back. ‘Stand down,’ she told the others. ‘Listen, Voyov’s saying something.’

‘Give yourself up and they won’t come to any harm,’ they heard.

Sabasha looked from Xin to Marik. ‘He’s going to kill them unless I go back.’

‘Don’t give in,’ Xin said. ‘They can look after themselves.’

‘Come on Sabasha,’ Voyov said. ‘Here’s one ready.’ One of the morphs pushed Lauden to the front of the macabre stage. ‘Come out or I’ll kill them all, one by one.’

Sabasha rubbed her face on her arm. ‘I can’t believe he’s doing this. He never used to be like this.’

‘Sevin would hold out,’ said Marik. ‘Has he said anything?’

Xin shook her head. ‘Only that they’re taken.’

Sabasha concentrated on the lonely figure of Lauden. ‘I can’t do it, I can’t let him do it. I’ll have to go in.’

‘Sabasha, I’m waiting!’ Voyov, armed with a blaster, was standing beside Lauden. He raised the barrel to Lauden’s head.

‘That’s it, I’m going now,’ said Sabasha. She took two steps towards the door when a single pulse screeched out. There was a flash and a cloud of smoke as Voyov’s head exploded. Lauden jumped back, his arms over his face. The decapitated body wobbled then tumbled to the ground.

‘Sabasha, wait!’ Xin called, too late. Falkon’s daughter was out of the pavilion and sprinting towards the castle. She pounded up the marble stairs and flung herself down beside Sevin who was investigating the remains. He indicated the black metal spine poking out from the charred neck to her with a questioning look.

Sabasha stood up. ‘Who did this?’ she demanded, looking around the ranks of faceless Nightwatch.

‘I did,’ came Keris’ voice from the direction of the castle. The morphs stood back to let her pass to the front, a spectre in a flowing white dress holding a blaster, its barrel still glowing. ‘He got out of control. We couldn’t have him wasting the specimens.’

Sabasha pointed at the body. ‘That is a morph! Where’s my real father?’

Keris laughed. ‘Falkon? Oh, I got rid of him years ago. He was becoming a nuisance, trying to stop my research, holding the company back, all because of his ethics. So I replaced him with a morph, it made life so much easier. Don’t tell me you never noticed?’

‘You evil bitch!’ Sabasha was about to rush her but Keris swung the nose of the blaster into her belly.

‘Calm down, you know you can’t win. Go to your quarters while I finish this off.’

‘No, I won’t. I’m going with them.’

’Back to Infinity? I don’t think so. They’re not going anywhere and neither are you. You know you can’t survive on the outside.’

‘I can, I will.’ Sabasha started to tremble.

‘You’re addicted to drugs which only I can supply. Think about it. You can’t even manage twelve hours without a dose.’

‘I can, I will!’ Sabasha started sobbing.

Keris patted her shoulder. ‘Go to your room, we’ll get you a shot and everything will be better. I’ll tidy up here.’ Transferring the blaster to her right hand, she used her left to bring a digi out of her pocket. With a thumb poised over the keys, she glanced at the Infinity crew. ‘The morphs can deal with this.’

‘Aaarrgghhh,’ came a war cry from their left. A stunted figure was hurtling towards them across the courtyard. It bowled into the lines of Nightwatch, shoving them aside to access the inner circle. It was Derry with an antique revolver in his hand.

‘Derry? Whatever are you doing?’ said Keris.

The hunchback aimed the old-fashioned gun at her head. ‘Pay back,’ he said.

‘Don’t be silly, you’re perfectly happy.’

Derry closed his eyes and pulled the trigger six times, the weapon jerking in his hand with each shot. When he’d emptied the magazine, he opened his eyes and squinted at the white heap at his feet which was seeping red.

‘Are you alright, Miss?’ he said to Sabasha. ‘Sorry about that. I couldn’t stand by and let her hurt you.’

Sabasha was looking at the remains of Keris in disbelief. She took his offered hand. ‘I’m fine, thank you, Stan.’

‘Glad to be of service.’

Sevin extracted the digi from Keris’ anaemic fingers and offered it to Sabasha. She shrank away like it was poisoned.

‘Why are you giving that to me?’

‘You’re the person most qualified to use it,’ said Sevin.

‘I don’t think so!’

‘Yes you are Miss! You know everything about the factory and how it works, more so than me. You should run the place,’ said Derry.

‘I couldn’t manage the whole facility.’

‘Sure you can! And, er, I could help you, if you let me.’

She looked at him doubtfully. ‘You’ve always wanted to leave Galeita. Now you can.’

‘Only cos I hated her so much. Working with your father when we first came here was good, I was happy then, had everything I wanted. Then she came along and it all changed. The rows they used to have, terrible it was. Then there came a stage when he gave in to her and she ran the shop.’

‘We know why now,’ said Sabasha.

‘We do. But you in charge, Miss, is a whole different matter. I’d do anything for you, you know that. You’re the real thing.’

She squeezed his hand. ‘Thank you Stan.’

He looked at her adoringly. ‘You’ll have to get off the drugs though. I don’t know what that vixen was giving you, but it was all bad stuff.’

‘I’m halfway there, I’m sure I can do it.’

‘There’s a whole laboratory here, I’m sure you can find a non-addictive painkilller,’ said Sevin.

‘It will be one of my challenges.’ She looked at Sevin. ‘Would you stay for a while? We could do with your help.’

He shook his head. ‘We should get going.’

‘You said you had a long journey. Where to?’

‘Gaia.’

‘Gaia? What are you doing there?’

‘Getting ships, reinforcements to fight against the Gharst.’

‘But it will take forever to get there!’

‘We think we’ve found a short-cut, through a kind of wormhole. It opens at a certain time for only a few minutes. We have to be there on time, it’s in a few weeks.’

‘Now I understand why you wouldn’t take me.’

‘I think you’ll be better off here.’

She nodded and looked up at Stanross who smiled and put an arm around her.

Sevin moved over to stand with the rest of the Infinity crew: Marik and Lauden watching patiently, Hauki and Xin dishevelled in party dresses.

‘Ready to teleport up?’ he asked them. They nodded.

‘Are you leaving right now?’ Sabasha asked, disappointed.

‘Yes.’

She cast around the courtyard. ‘Would you like to take some morphs with you?’

Sevin looked at Xin. ‘A couple of biomorphs?’ she asked.

‘Are you in orbit? I can have them sent up,’ said Sabasha.

‘We will be, thank you.’

’That’s quite a mission, I hope you make it.’

‘I hope you do too.’

’If you come back from Gaia, I’ll help you, any way I can, I promise.

Sevin smiled. ‘Then we’ll meet again. Goodbye Sabasha.’

‘Goodbye Tem Sevin, the gods go with you.’

ν

‘So Hauki got a kid because she misses her son and Xin basically got her dad, that’s so weird! Like those machines could really read your secret desires?’ Marik wriggled in his seat.

‘Exactly,’ said Xin from the other side of the briefing table. ‘The man’s a genius. Or was.’

‘And then his mistress did him in, or whatever she was,’ said Lauden. ‘Women, huh?’

‘You obviously still want yours!’ said Marik.

Lauden looked cross. ‘Desidata was nothing like my Tala.’

‘She was the living image, Sevin said!’ interrupted Hauki. She play-punched Marik’s shoulder. ‘What would your himeron look like?’

‘Well,’ said Marik, looking at the roof of the bridge dreamily. ‘Probably like …’

‘Probably like Marik,’ said Xin.

‘Hey, back off there!’ he said. ‘Remember who stopped Sabasha frying your brains?’

‘That is true.’ Xin bowed her head in his direction. ‘I have to thank you for that.’

‘See, I do have my uses,’ he said, partly mollified. ‘More than a morph is Pol Marik. And while we’re on it, those novos didn’t work down there, why was that?’

‘They did,’ said Xin. ‘But you have to be awake or not teleporting to answer them!’

Marik saw he couldn’t take that argument any further. ‘What about Sevin then? What did his machine look like?’

Lauden leaned across the table. ‘She looked like Atare,’ he whispered.

‘No! Really?’

‘Yes.’

‘I can see that, now you mention it.’

‘Where are they anyway?’ said Hauki.

‘On the flight deck last time I looked,’ said Lauden.

Xin got up from the table and went to look over the railings. She motioned to the others to join her. Below, Atare was seated at the navdesk with Sevin standing by her side. Heads together they were looking at the viewer, discussing some minute detail of the course ahead. He made a joke and she laughed, holding his gaze for longer than necessary.

Marik grinned at the others. ‘D’you think we should tell her?’

‘Nah,’ said Lauden, returning to his seat. ‘I think she knows already.’

8: INTO THE LIGHT

α

In a tiny cubicle deep within the rambling complex of the Offenvarld Sekuritat in Lyshargen, the capital city of Rheged, a clerk’s brow furrowed over dense lines of data. There was some unusual activity in the DSOS scheduling. Neglected instructions, which hadn’t been accessed since the new system was installed, had been opened in the new format even though their last modified dates remained pre-update.

He rubbed his eyes. Four night shifts in a row, he was bound to be fighting phantoms. It was probably nothing. He leaned back in his chair. Ten minutes until he clocked off, then home to the fresh goya fillet and the obliging wife who cooked it. He looked at the viewer again. The same pattern caught his eye, this time in the reporting sequences. He sighed. He would have to check it. Perhaps if he ran a wormware scan, it might throw something up. With a flurry of fingers on touchpad, he initialised the search and destroy program. What he saw next made his heart skip a beat.

He picked up the handset next to his viewer. ‘Komandante? I think we have an intruder.’

β

The view on Infinity’s forecam was a textbook image of the Gharst homeworlds. The bloated mass of the red giant Rikke hung in its centre, burning a sullen cochineal. They were approaching from the top of the system. From this perspective, the dying star and its attendants were like an orange and its pips laid out on a plate. Isvarld, the outermost planet, was an icy speck peppered with black rock. Viken, its closest neighbour, was a grey dot. Next in was their objective, Rheged, the most populous planet and the seat of the system’s government. Its distinctive charcoal and turquoise stripes were indistinguishable at this distance, as were its four moons. Finally, nearest in orbit to Rikke itself was the green fleck of Sigelund.

‘So near and yet so far, huh?’ said Lauden. He surveyed the colleagues who sat with him around the briefing table in various attitudes of boredom or anticipation. Across from him, Marik drummed a rhythm on the tabletop with his fingers while Atare, who sat on his left, watched him absent-mindedly.

‘Do you have to do that?’ asked Xin from the foot of the table

Marik stopped. ‘You don’t like it? It’s crankstep!’

‘It’s annoying.’

He continued nonetheless. Xin sighed and refocused on her digi.

Lauden looked at the empty chair next to him at the head of the table. Sevin had summoned them for a meeting but he was taking his time to arrive.

‘I dunno about you guys, but all this hanging around is driving me nuts!’ he said to no-one in particular.

Marik concluded his musical endeavour with a double-beat finale. ‘On the nose, pal. It’s draining. I wish we could do something, get on with it.’

‘Get on with what?’ asked Hauki, arriving through the iris. She took the seat on Lauden’s right.

‘The mission of course,’ said Marik. ‘We’re totally out of it up here.’

‘We can’t exactly sit in orbit until it’s time to go. There’s detectors everywhere, the place is done up like the Central Bank.’

‘Sevin will have a plan,’ said Lauden.

‘That, my friend, is what I’m worried about,’ said Marik. ‘Ah, here he is.’

The iris behind them dilated to admit Sevin. Neatly dressed as ever, he appeared tired and distracted, the customary hollows under his eyes seemed more like bruises. He looked around the seated crew.

‘You’re all here? Let’s start,’ he said, slotting the digi he carried into a dock at the head of the table. He remained standing while a beam of light shone through a hole in the middle of the table’s surface. A hologram of the Gharst homeworlds formed above it, suspended in the air like a fetish.

’The Rikke system,’ said Sevin. ‘We are currently a million linials out from the solar centre, way beyond Gharst territorial airspace.’ An icon of Infinity appeared at the upper edges of the image. ‘We need to get to here,’ he continued. A second icon appeared close to the black and blue planet, a shimmering tube with white light inside its mouth. ‘The nexus is due to open in Kalc quadrant, almost fifty linials from Rheged, a sixteen-hour journey from here, going at just under lightspeed. As you know, the nexus is due to open at 18:37 GST tomorrow night. We have,’ Sevin checked the countdown on his timepiece, ‘thirty-two hours and fifty-eight minutes to go. The nexus will stay open for three minutes, fifty-two seconds before shutting. We have to get there and get there on time, or we’ll be taking the scenic route to Gaia.’

The crew digested the information.

‘We’re gonna hang out here until it’s time to get going?’ asked Lauden.

‘Yeah!’ said Marik. ‘Then we do a massive rush. Stick on the infinity drive and kaboosh, we’ll be there!’

‘That’s leaving it too late,’ said Hauki. ‘Anything could happen on the way in and then we’re short of time to sort it out. We need to be on the doorstep waiting.’

‘Right,’ said Sevin. ‘And I’ve found a hideout.’

‘Where?’ asked Xin. ‘There’s no asteroid or lunar cover anywhere in the system, I’ve looked.’

’Correct. However, there is a wreck that nobody’s bothered to salvage yet.’ An image of a wounded craft sprang up near the nexus location. ’The Ullr is – or was – a supercontainer that had an asteroid smash eight years ago. It would fit three Infinities and we will be invisible inside it. It is also thirty minutes fly-time from the nexus loco.’

He looked around the table. Marik was nodding, Lauden stroked his moustache. Xin, however, was unconvinced.

’Nice idea, but you’ve neglected to mention that both those objectives are in the Protected Zone,’ she said. ’Nothing goes in, nothing goes out. We’ll never get past the wachtorn.’

‘Watch what?’ said Lauden.

‘Watchtowers,’ said Sevin. ‘It’s a nickname for the directed satellite observation system, the DSOS. It’s an offworld surveillance system mounted on satellites orbiting each planet. So you’ve got all the usual planetary detectors and scouts out in space sweeping the entire territory – and some beyond.’

‘It’s supposed to be impenetrable,’ said Xin.

‘That’s what they say.’ He touched a key on the digi. ‘Here they are, speeded up of course.’ Spheres of red light, about ten around each planet and sentries around the outer reaches of the system, sparked out in a model of each watchtower’s sweep. They intersected with each other to create a crimson globe around the whole Rikke system.

‘The detectors are everywhere,’ said Atare. ‘We can’t get around it.’

‘We can.’

‘How?’

‘Like any mechanical system, the DSOS is not continuously operational. Each watchtower shuts down for sixty seconds every twenty hours, to transmit saved data and clear the memory banks for the next session, longer if there are autorepairs.’

‘So they all shut down at the same time? We’ve got a window of sixty seconds to get across the system?’ asked Hauki.

‘No, better than that. They shut down on a rolling basis, one after the other.’

‘So you could cut a way through the overlaps!’ said Atare.

’Theoretically. For the average ship, the distances are too great to be covered in the time available and the interval between the shutdowns is negligible. But because of Infinity’s superior speed, it should be achievable for us. Unfortunately, the shutdowns don’t happen in a nice straight line so the path in will be a complicated hopscotch. This is it.’ A thread of black began a tortuous route through the red, doubling back and looping the loop like unravelled knitting. The crew looked at each other in dismay.

’This pattern commences at 08.48 GST from a point here in the Yr quadrant,’ Sevin continued, undeterred. ’That gives us roughly nine hours before the aperture opens. I estimate it will take us almost an hour to get through the wachtorn to the wreck of the Ullr, barring any complications. Then we will have eight hours or so to wait.’

‘Sevin, that route is not viable,’ said Hauki.

’It looks that way, I agree, but it’s not impossible. There’s only one really difficult part, right at the end.’ The area on the hologram lit up: a gossamer-fine tunnel of luminous green. ’The way through is a few metres wider than Infinity. If we stick a wing tip out of line, we’ll be detected. It requires great skill and lightning quick responses,’ said Sevin, putting a hand on Marik’s shoulder. ‘Only a pilot of your calibre, Marik, could do it. We will be relying on you.’

‘I was afraid you’d say that,’ he said.

Sevin turned to the others. ‘We will need to be in place at 08:00 tomorrow to be ready to catch the shutdowns as they start.’ He retrieved his digi from the table. ‘We’ve got twenty hours to practice in the simulator, I suggest you get started,’ he told Marik. ‘The rest of you get some decent food and sleep.’

Considering themselves dismissed, the crew drew back their chairs. Atare stayed put as the others stood up around her.

‘Er, Sevin!’ she called, holding up a hand. ‘You didn’t say anything about what happens if we do get detected.’

‘That’s a good point,’ said Marik.

Everyone stopped and turned to look at Sevin.

‘If we do get detected - which we won’t - Marik will get his wish,’ he said.

’We’ll use the Infinity drive? Treffo!’

‘We’ll need to be fully powered. Xin?’

She nodded and swept through the iris, heading to her workshop.

‘I’ll start plotting the course,’ said Hauki, hurrying past Sevin and down the steps to the flight desk. Lauden clamped a supportive arm around Marik’s shoulders and led him off to the rec. Atare kept her seat.

‘Taking a big risk, aren’t you?’ she said, when the others had gone.

‘There’s more risk attached to a final dash,’ Sevin said.

‘What if your calculations are wrong? A millisecond out and we’ll be totally exposed.’

‘They’re not wrong. I got them from the DSOS itself two hours ago.’

‘Okay, so what if Marik flunks it?’

‘He won’t!’ Sevin glared at her. ‘Anyway, failure is not an option.’

She got up from her seat and walked around the table to stand by him. ‘I’m just exploring all the angles, making sure we have all eventualities covered. It’s not exactly a walk in the park, is it?’

‘No.’ He looked at the floor, shy of meeting her eyes.

She put a hand on his arm. ‘You should take a rest too. You’re stressed - we all are, it’s understandable, we’re about to attempt an extremely difficult and dangerous mission. If it goes wrong and we get caught …’

‘Who knows what the Gharst will do to us,’ he finished for her, concentrating on the graceful hand laid against the iridescence of his uniform jacket.

‘That’s the risk we have to take. We can only do our best,’ she said.

‘Better than best.’

‘It will be alright, I’m sure.’ Her hand slipped away.

‘Probably.’ He raised his eyes to hers, wishing she would put her hand back on his arm. She smiled and turned to leave.

‘Atare?’

‘Yes?’ Her honey eyes swung back to his.

‘If …ah, if…’ He stalled, grasping for words.

’If what?’ she prompted, looking at him without curiosity.

If I should die, in the next few days, in the next few hours, I’d like you to know that I loved you.

He smiled at her awkwardly. ‘Never mind, it’s not important.’

Sᴇarch the FindNovel.net website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.