Last Stand of the DNA Cowboys (31 page)

Blaisdell snorted. 'We'd look pretty stupid if it turned out to be a bunch of raiders, armed to the teeth and barking crazy, with only the seven of us to stand against them.'

The Minstrel Boy nodded. 'He's got a point there. My mother didn't raise no sitting duck.'

Up to that point Lister Stent had not spoken. He and Jet Ace had been standing on the sidelines while the others argued. Now he caught everyone's attention with a metallic clearing of his throat. 'I'm afraid that this whole conversation is quite academic.'

Everyone except Jet Ace looked at him in amazement.

'Say what?'

'We cannot leave Palanaque. We'd be in contractual breach.'

'So? Who's going to stop us?'

Stent raised a steel arm. The gesture was almost apologetic. 'Unfortunately I would.'

Reave raised an eyebrow. 'And what would you want to go and do that for?'

'I'd have no choice.'

Renatta was shaking her head. 'What are you talking about?'

Stent did his best to be calming. 'Perhaps I should explain something. I am a very powerful and dangerous weapon and virtually indestructible. Because of this, like all of my kind, I don't have the luxury of choice and emotion that is available to you unadapted humans. Because of my strength I have been conditioned from my birth and creation to absolute obedience to authority. It is reinforced by chemical blockers. If I disobey a legitimate order, I start to vomit. After that, I go into convulsions, and finally I die.'

Renatta did not look particularly concerned with Stent's problem. 'So you stay. We don't have no conditioning to keep us here.'

'I'm afraid it's not as simple as that. I have been ordered to stop any of you from deserting.'

Reave slowly let out his breath. 'And when was that order given?'

'Soon after we left Krystaleit.'

'So Showcross Gee screwed us.'

'He did indeed.'

Billy thrust his hands deep into his pockets. 'So what do we do now?'

Reave once again stared at the reflections on the surface of the pool. 'All we can do is wait and see what pops out of the nothings. Once we know what we're facing, we can make a decision.'

For the next five days Reave and the Minstrel Boy made regular trips to the communications center to monitor the blip on the detector screen. Although it was still moving very slowly, if the lizardbrain could be believed, it was definitely moving in their direction.

'Can you guess at an ETA on this thing?'

The Minstrel Boy did not look happy. 'It's real hard to tell, but I can't see whatever it is taking more than a week to get here.'

On the fifth day of monitoring the object in the nothings it became plain that even the Minstrel Boy's prediction of when the thing would make realityfall had been overcautious.

'There's no mistake now. The signals have been too consistent. We'll know all about this sucker in the next sixteen hours.'

'It'll be here?'

The Minstrel Boy nodded. The pale green glow of the screen in the otherwise darkened room cast sinister shadows across his face.

'It'll be here.'

Reave's voice was very quiet. 'Damn.'

The Minstrel Boy turned away from the bowl-shaped screen. The messengers were already on their way to inform the beloved Master and General Zeum.

'You worried?'

Reave shook his head. 'I don't know. Maybe we've been watching this thing for too long.'

'All we can do is wait and see.'

'That's the worst part.'

Reave looked around. The communications center looked even more like a tomb. Most of the staff members were standing in a group on the far side of the detector room watching the two of them nervously. They could easily have passed for mourners.

'So what do we do now? Hang around here and wait for whatever it is to arrive?'

'I don't see what else we can do. I'd like to be around when the thing hits. It's most probably a false alarm, but I figure we need as much time as we can get to start motivating.'

Reave did not seem particularly enthusiastic about waiting in the communication center for the object to arrive. 'Motivating?'

'Motivating our collective ass.'

'What about Stent?'

The Minstrel Boy pursed his lips. 'We're going to have to sneak past Stent.'

'We sure as hell can't go through him.'

'That's a fact.'

Reave slumped into a chair, resigned to the wait. 'Okay, so let it come.'

'It's going to. Don't worry about that.'

Palanaque had a single advantage. Its stasis field was shaped so that anyone or anything approaching it would be tunneled around and forced to enter only at a single point, the break in the mountains at the very end of the valley, the farthest point from the city. Although its passengers had not known it at the time, the R1009 had come in that way. The entry point was right beside the upland lake that was the source of what turned into a wide river by the time it flowed past the city and eventually ran out into the nothings over the spectacular waterfall at the lower end of the valley.

The instant General Zeum received the word, he was galvanized. His reaction might not have been inspired, but it was certainly swift. A detachment of 150 hoplites with spears and shields, attendant epsilons, a malfunctioning portable communicator, and supplies for two days were dispatched up the valley. The first leg of their journey was by gaily painted riverboat, the kind normally used to provide pleasure trips for the leisure caste. When they were close to the rapids below the lake, they would disembark and make the remainder of the journey on foot. Overall, the trip would take them some five hours. Once in place they would stand guard at the edge of the nothings and wait for whatever arrived. Reave and the Minstrel Boy had long since given up trying to advise Zeum, so they simply kept their own council and watched the screen.

The wait took on the feeling of a vigil. After a couple of hours
Renatta and Blaisdell arrived. They were both a little drunk, but they had brought an epsilon with them, carrying a basket containing food and a number of jugs of the raw local wine. They had their weapons with them, and they seemed to have come to stay for the duration. The epsilon had brought along Reave's pistols and the Minstrel Boy's knife belt and AK 5000 as well as SG portapacs.

'If the moment of truth's on its way, we ought to be ready for it,' Blaisdell explained.

Reave looked approvingly at the equipment and the wine. 'Good looking out. Where's Billy?'

'Oh, he's gone again. No one home there.'

'Fuck him, he's tailing back into his old ways.'

'He's picked a great time for it.'

'He always does. Where are the metal men?'

'They're out in the city someplace. They seemed to feel the need to move around.'

The Minstrel Boy broke the seal on the first jug of wine. The staff of the communication center looked a little askance at their pristine inner sanctum being turned into a party place, but they appeared too intimidated to say anything. The hours passed, and the mysterious blip crawled painfully slowly toward the merge point.

Renatta was the first one to grow angry at the waiting. 'This is like watching paint dry.'

'So don't watch it. Go on getting drunk.'

After eleven and a half hours the object entered Palanaque reality. There was a brief flash on the detector screen as it made the transition.

'This is it. They're here.'

Renatta stared a little wearily at the now-empty screen. 'Do you realize that they probably watched us come in just like this?'

Blaisdell laughed. 'They probably weren't drinking.'

'Maybe they should have been.'

Reave stood up and stretched. 'Let's hope these guys don't cause any more trouble than we did.'

Renatta looked up at him.'How do you know they are guys?'

One of the communication staff members came into the detector room and bowed. 'There's a signal coming through from the company at the lake.'

Reave looked up. 'Can you patch it in here?'

'Easily.'

'Then please do so.'

The technician bowed again and hurried away. Within a matter of seconds the detector room was filled with an urgent voice that was almost drowned in static.

' . . . and the nothings have started to glow . . . major transition flux is being created.' The static increased, and the voice came through only in brief snatches. ' . . . something coming through . . . can't make . . . just shadows against the . . . a lot of . . .'

The clear voice of a military operator in the city cut in. ' Please say again, Company A. You are breaking up very badly. I repeat, please say again. Check your equipment and say again.'

' . . . moving in . . . I don't know . . . it looks . . . hard to . . .'

'We are losing you altogether, Company A. Dispatch the runners now. I say again, dispatch the runners now.'

'Holy shit!'

The Minstrel Boy clapped his hands to his ears. The signal was gone, and the room was filled with violent shrieking feedback. It lasted for almost a half minute and then cut out. Thie static returned, but this time there was not even the semblance of a voice. The Minstrel Boy sighed. 'They're off the air.'

Renatta put down the wine jug she had been cradling. Her voice was suddenly sober. 'Do we ask ourselves why?'

The Minstrel Boy stood up. 'I've been trying to avoid doing that, but I haven't found a way around it. I also have this terrible feeling that the best thing we could do would be to go up to that lake and take a look for ourselves.'

Reave looked at him as though he were mad. 'Are you kidding?'

'No, I'm not.' He motioned in the direction of the communication staff. 'But I'd rather not discuss it in front of them. Little pigs often have big ears.'

Reave picked up his jug and stood up. 'So let's go stretch our legs.'

As soon as they were out in the open, the Minstrel Boy started to outline his plan. 'The way I see it, we volunteer to go up the river and see what's going on by the lake.'

'And do we?'

'Sure we do. It's what we do next that counts.'

'And what's that?'

'We'll have two options. If whatever's come out of the nothings proves to be harmless, we come back to the city and spread the good news.'

Blaisdell pushed his fingers through his hair. 'And if it ain't harmless?'

'Then we try and creep through and make it to the nothings.'

'But why go all the way up to that lake? Why don't we just hit the nothings at the nearest point?'

The Minstrel Boy allowed himself a small superior smile. 'Because if you'd check out the stasis field on this place, you'd know that it's one of those spiral fold deals. The only way in or out is through a quite small access window up by the lake. '

Reave shook his head. 'I'm not so sure about this.'

The Minstrel Boy halted. 'Listen, it's only just after sunset outside. We would make it before dawn. We can take a boat most of the way.'

Renatta blinked. 'A boat?'

The Minstrel Boy was confident. 'We can get a boat.'

'We can?'

'Sure we can. I figure they'll be about ready to give us anything right about now if we can shed some light on the situation.'

Clay Blaisdell was nodding his agreement. 'The Minstrel Boy's right. If this is a raiding party and they're moving on the city, they won't bother to hide their position. They'll be coming with fire and sword, and we'll see them when they're still miles off.'

Reave sighed. 'I guess you're right. I've got to tell you, though, trekking up that river is the last thing I feel like doing. '

The Minstrel Boy ignored that final objection. 'So we ask for a boat.'

He started toward the Great Pyramid, but Reave caught him by the arm.

'What about Billy?'

The Minstrel Boy had temporarily forgotten their third musketeer.

'Oh, hell. Yes. Billy . . .'

Renatta stepped in. 'Clay and I will get Billy. You guys get the boat. We'll meet you at the dock.'

As the Minstrel Boy had predicted, the beloved Master and General Zeum were more than willing to help anyone who was
foolhardy enough to go upriver and find out what was going on. Forty-five minutes saw Reave and the Minstrel Boy at the river pier closest to the pyramid. A light, fast galley with a prow like a painted sea monster, a single tier of epsilon rowers, and the sleek stylized lines of racing craft of the Elite was moored there. Torches burned on the canopied quarterdeck, their flames reflecting off the oiled bodies of the rowers. Reave and the Minstrel Boy were, however, a little too preoccupied to spend very long admiring the beauty of the craft. The Minstrel Boy looked anxiously back down the dock.

'Where the hell are the others?'

Reave scowled. 'They're probably still looking for Billy.'

'I swear the bastard's capacity for fucking up increases in direct proportion to the system breaking down. It gets worse, he gets worse.'

'Maybe he's the one who's responsible for it all.'

The Minstrel Boy laughed despite the tension. 'The whole world's an analogue of Billy's rotting psyche?'

'Got to blame someone.'

A further ten minutes brought an end to the waiting but a hardly satisfactory answer. There were just two figures coming down the dock toward them, Renatta and Blaisdell — but no Billy.

'We looked in all the usual places, but there's no sign of him. He could be racked out in any one of a dozen discorp dens.'

Reave glanced at the Minstrel Boy. 'We can't leave Billy behind.'

The Minstrel Boy shrugged. 'We've left him behind before. '

Reave looked unhappy. 'Yeah, but this time's different.'

'A bit more terminal?'

'You know what I mean.'

'What do you want to do about it?'

Reave was spared having to come up with an answer, General Zeurn and a squad of his hoplites chose that moment to come marching down the pier. Showcross Gee and Stent were with them. Zeum was his normal unshakable self.

'Are you sure that you wouldn't rather wait for the runners?'

'We'll meet them if they're coming.'

'There's a communications unit aboard.'

'Let's hope we have better luck with this one.'

Zeum ignored the crack. 'Do you want a squad of my men to accompany you?'

Reave shook his head. 'We work better alone.'

'As you will.'

The Minstrel Boy was looking impatient. 'Is there anything else? Can we go aboard now?'

General Zeum gestured toward the galley. 'The boat is at your disposal.'

Showcross Gee took a step forward and spoke for the first time. 'There is one thing.'

Reave's eyes narrowed. He did not like the metaphysician's tone. 'What's that?'

'I'd prefer it if you left your SG portapacs here.'

Reave glanced down at the unit on his belt. 'There's a chance we might need them.'

'Indeed there is — a chance that you might need them to slip away into the nothings and desert. We can't afford to not have you here right now.'

Reave started to bluster, but he could hardly deny that the thought had crossed his mind. 'This is ridiculous. The SGs are a part of our basic equipment.'

'Just hand over the portapacs.'

Reave looked at Stent. 'Are we to suppose that you're here to back him up?'

Stent's expression was impossible to read behind his metal headpiece, but his voice sounded a note of regret. 'I explained how it is.'

Reluctantly, Reave undipped the SG from his belt and handed it over. He indicated that the others should do the same. Stent watched impassively.

'Can we go aboard now?'

'Please, go right ahead.'

As they mounted the gangplank, the Minstrel Boy leaned close to Reave. 'I guess we don't have to feel guilty about leaving Billy behind anymore.'

In addition to the ten epsilon rowers, there was also a helmsman, an overseer/drummer to set the stroke, a lookout on the bow, and an ensign who was in command of the vessel. Once Reave, the Minstrel Boy, Renatta, amd Blaisdell had settled themselves in its stern, the galley was quickly cast off and the epsilons hauled on their oars. The drummer set a steady pace, and the lights of the city slipped away behind them while the four lounged in the stern cushions in most unsoldierly comfort.

The ten rowers quickly developed a healthy rate of knots, particularly since the drummer regularly rose from his bench and, all the time shouting the cadence, encouraged them to greater efforts with a multithonged lash.

The first stage of the journey might have been pleasant, even leisurely, if it had not been for the thought of what they might find at their destination. The carved and painted prow sliced through the dark water, producing white curlicues of foam; the oars rose and fell to the accompaniment of the hypnotic drumbeat and the soft groans of the sweating epsilons. The sky was dark blue velvet and studded with thousands of twinkling pseudostars. A soft breeze blew along the length of the craft. For the first couple of hours the Minstrel Boy was almost able to turn off his apprehension and simply savor the experience. After two hours, though, as they neared the halfway point, a new anxiety set in. There was no sign of the runners from Company A. If they had been dispatched when the communicator transmission had failed, the boat should have already encountered them. It might have been possible to miss them in the darkness, but with the stem lit by blazing torches, the runners would have undoubtedly seen the boat and signaled.

Reave pushed himself up from the cushions and walked forward along the catwalk between the two lines of rowers to question the lookout. 'Are you absolutely sure that you've seen nothing?'

The lookout, a boy who could not have been more than fourteen or fifteen, vehemently shook his head. 'No, my lord. I've been watching all the time. The ensign would have the skin off my back if I missed anything.'

Reave returned to his companions. 'I don't like this at all. If these newcomers stopped the runners leaving, we can only assume that their intentions are hostile.' He turned to the ensign. 'Is it possible that they took another route?'

The ensign shook his head. 'There is no other route. They would have had to follow the river.'

The Minstrel Boy squinted into the dark. 'So what do we want to do now? It's too late to turn back.'

Reave was also peering into the night. 'All we can do is keep going, taking all possible care.' He called to the lookout. 'If you see anything, boy, anything at all, tell me immediately.'

'Aye, aye, my lord.'

The galley maintained a steady speed for the best part of an hour. Toward the end of that time Reave, the Minstrel Boy, and the ensign were all up in the prow watching for any sign of life. The river had become considerably narrower and ran between steep, rocky banks. The ensign looked warningly at Reave.

'We'll be coming to the rapids very soon.'

'What will we find when we get there?'

'There is a landing stage on the smooth water just below them. We should see the riverboat that brought Company A up here.'

It was only a matter of minutes before the lookout sang out. 'Something in the water up ahead.'

'Does it look like a boat?'

The lookout shook his head. 'No, my lord. If it is, it's burnt and sunk in the shallows.'

Reave scowled. 'I hope to hell you're wrong,' He signaled to the ensign. 'Let's take it slow and easy.'

The ensign motioned to the drummer. 'Stop that racket and reduce the stroke to dead slow.'

The drummer put down his mallets and maintained the slowest possible stroke with silent gestures.

'Douse the stern lights.'

There was a soft hiss as the torches were extinguished. The galley glided forward like a silent ghost. The lookout proved to be absolutely right. The remains of a charred hulk were half-submerged beside the pier, and bodies and debris were floating in the water. The Minstrel Boy felt a cold clutch at his guts. Their worst fears had been realized.

'It's a fucking massacre.'

A conference quickly convened on the quarterdeck.

'This has to be the work of raiders. They must be camped somewhere up by the lake, though why in hell they haven't made a move on the city yet is beyond me.'

'I should get on the communicator.'

The ensign seemed to be waiting for Reave's okay. Reave nodded. 'Yeah, go ahead. Give them the bad news.'

Everyone gathered around the large cumbersome communicator while the ensign coaxed it into life.

'Company B calling Palanaque Central.'

All that came from the small speaker was the familiar crackle of static.

'Company B calling Palanaque Central, acknowledge, please.'

The ensign looked worriedly at Reave. 'I don't seem to be raising them.'

'Keep trying. If you don't get them after five minutes, send out all the relevant information in the hope that they can hear us even if we can't hear them.' Reave glared at no one in particular. 'Why does nothing here work properly?'

The ensign stayed crouched over the set while the others gathered in a tense group.

'So
what do we do if the communicator is out? Head down-river and warn them in person?'

Reave shook his head. 'I want to have a closer look at what's out there. I want to know exactly what we're dealing with. The Minstrel Boy and I will go ashore and try to infiltrate their camp.'

The Minstrel Boy started to protest. 'How did I get elected to walk into the jaws of death?'

'You and I can most likely mingle with these raiders in the dark.'

'So can Blaisdell.'

'I prefer to work with you.'

'Thanks a lot.'

'You're welcome.'

Renatta planted her hands on her nips. 'And what are we supposed to do while you two are out playing heroes? Sit here twiddling our thumbs and waiting?'

'Get the boat out into the middle of the river and be ready to go fast at the first sign of trouble. Give us two hours. If we 're not back by then, take off and warn the city.'

The galley moved up to the pier, and Reave and the Minstrel Boy jumped ashore. They watched as the galley backed up, positioned itself in the middle of the stream, and dropped a light anchor. The rowers skulled lightly to keep it from dragging with the current. Satisfied that everything had been done, Reave and the Minstrel Boy turned and walked purposefully away.

'You know something? I'm not going to forget how you volunteered me for this.'

Reave laughed grimly. 'Let's hope you have lots of time to remember it in.'