Requiem (20 page)

'I said, 'what
hand did you use?''

'Why does it
matter?' she replied.

Belameir
quickly poked his head out and looked through the small glass pane
before pulling it back.

'What's in
there?' Seline asked.

'I dunno.'

Seline poked
her head across.

'It looks like
the back of a lecture hall or something. We'll have to try another
door.'

Belameir looked
in again.

'Come on did
you see the size of that room?' he said. 'There has got to be
something going on in there. You don't make a screen that big
unless you have something important to show on it. Besides, there's
a crowd in there. We can hide from her.'

Belameir pulled
at the door open but it didn't move.

'It's
locked.'

Seline squeezed
her fingers of her right hand in the tiny gap at the bottom of the
door and yanked it up. The talking of the crowd inside the room
drowned out the sound of the lock breaking.

Belameir placed
his hands at the bottom of the door to keep it open. He pulled it
up, holding it high enough for Seline to squeeze under. She was
just about through when he nudged her with the tip of his shoe. He
stifled his laughter as she rolled through, somehow managing to not
make a noise.

Seline looked
through the pane at Belameir's face. She came back to the door and
held it up for him. As he began to crawl under she let go of the
door, pinning him beneath it. She left him there and made her way
to the packed isle of the auditorium where she could get a better
view of the stage.

'Hey! This
isn't funny!' whispered Belameir as loud as he could. He writhed
beneath the door but Seline had moved on. She had blended into the
crowd and now stood, waiting at the base of the large grandstand
style seating. The light sound of conversation and idle discussion
was waning and the head speaker was preparing to start.

Belameir
finally managed to escape from beneath the door. He moved in next
to Seline.

'You used your
right hand didn't you?' he asked her.

'Shut up. I
don't remember,' she said.

Belameir looked
over the heads of the crowd. 'So what's happening?' he asked.

'Shh,' she
said.

The voices had
stopped. Apart from the shuffling of feet and bodies the room was
silent. Seline looked towards the door to make sure Therin hadn't
decided to come in.

'Thank you all
for attending on such short notice,' began the speaker. His voice
echoed so it sounded like several voices were talking. 'As you
know, what little information we've received has given us great
cause for concern and so this address will be as blunt as
possible.'

The speaker
paused briefly and looked over the crowd before continuing. He
spoke calmly into the anticipating silence.

'For those of
you who don't know, several weeks ago a Yurrick expedition team
became the first of our species to venture beyond the Tryil Gate.
The scout ship was responsible for conducting research and
gathering data on the planetary systems that existed on the other
side. We can now confirm what many of you already know – that the
scout team sent an unspecified distress signal from the Obal System
about twenty thousand light years away. The distress signal was
directed through the Atlas Gates and was received by us about four
days after the incident would have occurred, assuming that there
was no delay in its sending. No contact has been made from the team
since we received the message, which makes their findings all the
more concerning.'

The speaker
stared out over the crowd, shifting his eyes from one side of the
hall to the other as if looking for someone in particular. He
looked down at the dais and continued.

'While the
disappearance of the scouting team is of great concern to us and
will be addressed as quickly as possible, the information they have
relayed to us has given us pause and reason to be cautious in our
response.'

A large image
was displayed on the wall behind the speaker of a red dwarf star
surrounded by darkness and the small specks from distant stars.

The speaker
gestured towards the image. 'This is the star, Karrel 151, obtained
from telescopic images taken from Saranture last year; one of the
first systems that our research team attempted to explore after
passing through the Tryil Gate only four weeks ago.'

The image
flicked away and another took its place.

'This is Karrel
151 four weeks ago, taken exactly 1.5 million kilometres from where
our co-ordinates say it should be.'

The image was
of complete and empty space. Apart from the same black canvas
screen of space and its light speckled surface there was nothing
for waiting eyes to register. The image disappeared with another
flick.

'This is a
telescopic image of Messar Turo taken from Saranture two years
ago.' Flick. 'And the same star's location imaged from 1 million
kilometres away only three weeks ago.'

Flick. 'A
telescopic photo of Telum Tur 37a, five years ago.' Flick. 'The
same location two and a half weeks ago.'

Three more
sequences of images were filed through. The co-ordinates changed
yet the comparison remained the same. Conspicuous presence followed
by conspicuous absence. There were quiet murmurings among the crowd
but no one voiced any objections.

'Let me assure
you, these co-ordinates are exact,' said the speaker. 'These stars,
to put it simply, are missing.

'The team was
able to pick up the heat and radiation signatures of some of the
planets that were orbiting the missing stars. Obviously, with no
gravitational anchor the planets have been left to drift away from
their predicted orbits, as have the Atlas Gates that were stationed
in their respective systems. Rough calculations based on the
distances some of these planets have travelled from their predicted
original orbit tells us that some of these systems have been
starless for up to a year. Others have been starless for no more
than three months.

'We have since
learned that, of the planets that have been investigated at least
six that were possible candidates for ore and mineral extraction
had been, for all intents and purposes, decimated. There are
obvious signs of mining and resource stripping but no clues as to
what or who was responsible.'

More images
were shown, shot in ultra-violet, from the orbits of the planets
the speaker was discussing. Terrestrial landscapes with massive
basins carved into their surface as if the hand of God herself had
reached down from the sky and torn colossal pieces of flesh from
the planet's surface. Chunks of this rock had been thrown into the
upper reaches of the atmosphere and left to drift as scattered
satellites above the planets.

The speaker
flicked to another image. 'One of the planets that was suspected of
harbouring life has, it appears, not only been stripped but
deliberately targeted and destroyed beyond all recognition.'

Photos taken
from much closer to the surface of one of the planets showed the
remnants of a decimated alien city. What hadn't been turned into a
crater had been left as rubble. Save the thumbprint of the dead
city, nothing could be distinguished that could make any sense of
those who had been killed.

'Not only was
the planet bombarded and stripped,' said the speaker, 'but we
believe that its orbit had been altered. When the scouting crew
found the planet, it was in a state of severe orbital decay around
a local intermediate-mass black hole and only one probe could be
sent down to relay what information it could before the planet
entered into the black hole's event horizon. We believe that
whatever destroyed the inhabitants of the planet may have somehow
altered the planet's orbit in order to destroy the planet as
well.'

Seline looked
over the room as the crowd continued to whisper and speculate
amongst themselves.

'This pattern
does not appear to be entirely random,' continued the speaker.
'Whatever is destroying these systems is following a particular
path through the Atlas Gates. It so happens that the path it, or
they, have been taking has not led the threat to this part of the
galaxy.

'However, there
have been exceptions. Sigma B and Lorel. Both of these systems,
while several of their planets have been stripped, have been lucky
enough to have their respective stars remain intact. Both Sigma B
and Lorel are known super giants. Thus, as a preliminary
hypothesis, it appears that whatever is targeting these stars may
be limited by size or resources.'

The speaker
looked down from the image, over the crowd once again. 'If there
are questions. Now is the time to ask,' he said. 'We have included
an FAQ on the Astronomical Division's exonet page and a panel of
experts will be arriving shortly to answer whatever technical
questions you might have.' He looked at the door as if expected
someone to come through it but no one did. 'In the meantime I will
answer what I can,' he said.

For a moment
the crowd remained perfectly quiet. The kind of silence that falls
over a classroom when a question has been asked but either no one
knows or no one wants to guess at the answer. Eventually, someone
broke the silence. Seline couldn't see who was speaking above the
height of the Yurrick next to her.

'What's going
to be done about the missing scouts? Is a recovery team being
sent?' asked the voice.

'Yes,' said the
speaker. 'We will be dispatching a group, a first contact team, to
track down the missing scouts. They are our number one priority and
will remain so until they're found.'

'How many
systems do we know have been destroyed?' asked another voice.

'At least
thirteen,' said the speaker. 'But there is a high probability that
the actual number is much higher. We are certain that eight systems
are destroyed because we have seen as much, but whatever is doing
this must have begun somewhere. The first system after the Tryil
Gate is the Farrow System which has, not counting the Tryil Gate
itself, two other Atlas Gates. We have no reason to believe that
the threat first started in the Farrow System and since it isn't
likely that it came through our side of the Tryil Gate then we can
safely assume that it came from somewhere beyond the Farrow
System's other Atlas Gate, the one that the scouts didn't pass
through. This idea is also corroborated by the scout's findings, as
the damage to the systems they were passing through became
progressively recent.'

'Is the path of
this threat linear?' came another question which was immediately
interrupted by another.

'How do we know
this thing is a 'threat' in the first place? I don't like that
assumption.'

'It destroyed
an entire civilization,' said someone.

'Maybe
they
were the threat.'

Belameir was
about to ask a question when Seline pulled his hand down. 'What the
hell are you doing?' she hissed.

'I've got a
question.'

'Just keep your
hand down.'

The large door
to the auditorium swung open and about five Yurrick quietly walked
in.

The speaker
turned to the door. 'And here's the panel to help answer some of
your questions.' And with that the speaker bowed his head slightly
before stepping down from the raised platform and helping to set up
some microphones.

The panel of
Yurrick looked older than most of the Yurrick Seline had seen. The
colour of their skin was faded, their eyes were all deep-set into
their skulls and they all had a relatively similar appearance
unlike those on the first contact team. The last of them to enter
was one whom Seline recognised as Tialus. The one in command of
Sear and his team when she left Earth.

The crowd had
begun talking amongst themselves while the panel was setting up.
Seline overheard several of the students making plans to leave to
get to their next class. As some of the audience members slowly
spilled from the amphitheatre and through the exits either side of
the main screen Belameir turned and whispered to Seline. 'Come on,
we better get out of here before they cat-'. He stopped mid
sentence and stared past Seline, his mouth slightly smirking. Guilt
and pleasure, married together in an expression she knew all too
well.

Seline stayed
facing Belameir, knowing full well that they'd both been caught.
Like a child, she refused to turn around. Somewhere in the back of
her mind was the belief that if she couldn't see them, they
couldn't see her. And if they couldn't see her then she couldn't be
in trouble. She stood completely still, expecting a hand to slam
down on her shoulder and drag her to the nearest cell. As she
finally turned to face the fate that Belameir so willingly invited,
Belameir grabbed her hand and pulled her into the exiting crowd.
They shoved through the bodies and forced their way through the
door. They looked left. The hallway they stood in stretched into
the distance, curving off to the right. Doorways and corridors
lined both walls. They looked right. It was the exact same scene
but in reverse.

'This way!'
they both yelled.

Belameir ran
left. Seline ran right. With their hands still clasped together
they pulled each other back, almost falling back on one
another.

'Not that way.
This way!' said Belameir.

'Why?'

'When in doubt,
go left! Everyone knows that!'

The security
guard appeared in the doorway.

Seline dragged
Belameir to the right. The Yurrick's outstretched hand just missed
Belameir's arm as he stumbled behind Seline. She could hear
Belameir laughing almost maniacally behind her. She was too busy to
look back and see what he was laughing at. Doors and curious faces
rushed past in a blur as she weaved and pushed her way down the
corridor.