Seeds of Earth (30 page)

'Hmm, yes, very good, Kaachi, very good indeed, a most intriguing range of styles and execution. Your species appears to have dedicated a great deal of thought and effort to this pastime, resulting in some fascinating, hmm, product.'

'Do you have any favourites yet?' Kao Chih said.

'I'm not so keen on that electroniki you recommended - very mannered and precise yet somehow bloodless - but this rokinrol is, ah, crude, harsh and fully alive, especially the Deep Purple, the Black Sabbath and the Led Zeppelin.'

Kao Chih smiled and nodded. His wallet of music tabs had been a last-minute addition back on the Retributor, and had proved a wise one. After hearing a selection of compositions from various eras, Yolog's demeanour had changed markedly and he made an offer which covered the cost of his services and increased their store of hard currency.

'I had thought that your preferences would be the other way round,' Kao Chih said.

'Matters of taste are scarcely fathomable, friend Kaachi. Your electroniki is just the kind of thing my brother Yash would find irresistible, but not the rokinrol. What is certain is that many of my contacts will be eager to obtain entire suites of music once they have heard a few samples.'

The Voth replaced his audiobud and went back to monitoring the displays, head nodding, fingers tapping. Outside, the immensity of Tagreli Openport was looming ever closer as Yolog guided the craft towards one of the main esplanade docks. Kao Chih leaned towards Drazuma-Ha* and in a low voice said:

'Have you learned any more about this place? Are we safe?'

Soon after the corrupt course data brought them here, the
Castellan's
comm system had managed to link into the local dataplex, but only at a low level. They knew they had arrived near Tagreli Openport but access to almost anything other than ad-chains, job agencies and product catalogues was restricted to secure idents. So while the mech tried to glean background information they posted a request for a data-recovery tech on one of the agency hireflows and Yolog responded not long after. The Voth's storage hold was part of an ancient, demilitarised Indroma troop transport, a gigantic hulk sitting in a parallel orbit to Tagreli's, along with several other decrepit vessels converted for warehousing, food production, manufacturing and even prisoner detention.

'I have determined a few more details,' the mech said. 'Tagreli Openport lies at the border of three nations, Sul, Weh-Alzi and Iroaroa, impoverished client states of the Sendrukan Hegemony. The port is tightly controlled by the Abstainers, a clan of very old Henkayans wholly dependent on a combination of mechanised life extension and anti-agathic drugs. Tagreli operates ostensibly as a neutral port open to anyone, but the Abstainers know that the Hegemony is boss. And are we safe? well, if someone was looking for us it would not be hard to find us. The sooner we conclude this commerce and leave the happier I will be.'

Kao Chih nodded and looked round to see the bows of an immense grey-and-green ship filling most of the viewport. The vessel's entire forward section was long and straight with a rhomboid cross-section, its flat prow occupied by three large weapon ports, probably composite beam cannons, he guessed. The flanks were studded with more weapon clusters, domes and turret mounts; the mid-section flared to the aft, which was wide and Y-shaped, its corners tapering to three huge, rotating weapons carrels while the main drive tubes jutted from the stern. There was also battle damage, scorching, broken and melted shield antennae, and hull breaches around which repair drones and tekneers were gathered.

'That's the
Heshgemar-Kref,''
Yolog said. 'A
Chastiser-class
Hegemony battleship. It's just back from the Yamanon Domain, where it got into a skirmish or two with the remnants of the Dol-Das regime.'

'What's that smaller ship?' Kao Chih said, pointing.

As the Voth's shuttle progressed the battleship's other flank came into view, as did a second ship moored nearby at the esplanade end of the great open hangar. This one was roughly a tenth the size of the
HeshgemarKref
and was all sleek, dangerous lines, as if modelled after a sea or airborne predator, its long narrow hull lacking obvious weaponry and sensors while slender wings curved forward from the rear; the wings' leading edges were open for repairs, exposing the extendable weapon arrays. It was a lightly armoured vessel built for speed and aggressive manoeuvrability, and its livery was dark blue with silver highlights and a series of symbols along its dorsal line.

'An Ezgara ship,' said Yolog. '
Ambusher-class,
almost certainly assigned as escort to the battleship. The names of Ezgara vessels are seldom posted on the dockflows but this one has eleven kill sigils on its hull, which means that it could be the
Chaxothal,
which was supposedly responsible for the destruction of the Dol-Das navy's flagship during the Yamanon liberation.'

Kao Chih had known little about the liberation of the Yamanon Domain, beyond the fact that the invading coalition included Earthsphere and the Sendrukan Hegemony, and that the occupation had been dragging on for nearly four years. Since embarking on his mission to Darien, however, he had noticed many details, overheard scraps of conversation in public places or reports on news channels, which gave the impression that the occupation was very unpopular and provoking a grassroots insurgency rather than fostering peace and reconciliation.

Then the shuttle's flightpath took it past the next open hangar and Kao Chih's eyes widened. The vessel moored there was gigantic, perhaps three or four times the size of the Hegemony battleship. In shape it was like a four-cornered, gleaming gold and red arrowhead set on its side, its edges curving in to join with a massively domed aft section, its surfaces bizarrely adorned with creatures and figures, symbols and lines of characters as well as great banners and flags. The bas-relief forms were worked into the warship's exterior features: mouths gaped around launch bays while beam weapons jutted from eye sockets. The entire hull was a fabulously baroque facade, as if enemies were to be awed into submission by its relentless ornamentation.

'Ah, yes, hmm, the
Kbo-Maurz,'
the Voth said. 'A Brolturan ship, which they call a Strategic Offensive Conveyor but it's really an ancient super-carrier built by the Ufan Oligarchs during their war with the Sarshenidominated Indroma nearly five hundred years ago.'

'Impressive,' Kao Chih said.

Yolog gave a little smile. 'Just so, and yet the flagship of the Yamanon navy was produced by the same yard around that time - it was a super-heavy carrier and was twice the size of that one.'

Kao Chih blinked and looked at the Voth. 'And that Ezgara ship ... it's practically a boat in comparison.'

'Yes, yes, but the Dol-Das regime was basically a gang of incompetents - a quarter of that flagship's weaponry was out of commission, fifteen of its seventy decks were sealed off due to disrepair, and just four out of its twelve launch bays had a full complement of closesupport fighters. Rumour has it that the
Cbaxotbal
gained entrance to one of the disused bays and proceeded to blast a tunnel through the ship's interior to the stern where it wrecked the drives and set a number of charges. Once the Ezgaran ship left the way it had come, the flagship was torn apart by several devastating explosions.'

Teams of engineers worked all over the
Kbo-Maurz's
glittering hull, which slid out of sight as the Voth's shuttle climbed towards a line of smaller hangars sitting on top of the big ones. But Yolog steered past them and through the slow traffic of ships and pilot-tugs towards a tower around which other similar docks were spaced.

Staring at this tower, Kao Chih took in the wider view and suddenly realised that Tagreli Openport had a spoked-wheel configuration with each of the six spokes ending in a secondary axis tower, and it was one of those that was their destination.

Soon they were docking in what appeared to be an access shaft for automated garbage scows. Yolog's craft clamped itself to a recess in the shaft and a segmented transit tube swung out, neatly settling over the shuttle's airlock. Minutes later Kao Chih and an oddly quiet Drazuma-Ha* were following the Voth into what he called his 'business premises'. Ceiling arrays of coloured lights came up to reveal a showroom with rows of pristine-looking bots and droids. Wide double-doors led into a well-equipped workshop where machines hummed and odd-shaped displays showed strangely blurred strings of data flowing in patterns, coils and grids. Yolog blanked them with a gesture then moved smoothly over to a terminal with a large, convex oval screen.

'If you please, Kaachi, your course data.'

Kao Chih handed over a small memory crystal which was swiftly slotted into a curved console with silvery beadlike keys. Moments later datastreams began to flow down the screen, with an inset showing analysis results flowing left to right. Drazuma-Ha* was floating a few feet away and Kao Chih was letting his gaze wander around the workshop, the benches, the assembly rigs, and the ceiling-mounted scanners, when the mech spoke.

'Yolog, this equipment appears to be malfunctioning.'

The machine was hanging before a large sloping cabinet on which various lights and symbols were flickering.

'It is only a battery-charging stall,' the Voth said without diverting his attention. 'Pay it no heed - the cut-out will shortly ...'

A loud bang came from the cabinet and pieces of its shell and sparks burst outward, showering DrazumaHa*. The Voth cursed, turned from the silver keyboard and sped along to the cabinet, reaching out with one of his exo-supported arms to shut off the power.

'My good clients, I am deeply sorry for this unfortunate accident,' Yolog said, moving in Drazuma-Ha*'s direction. 'Are you damaged, most valued machine? Do you require repair or systems check, hmm?'

Kao Chih rushed over, full of anxiety, but the mech was retreating from the Voth, then gliding towards the exit.

'I am undamaged,' it said. 'But I intend to wait in the shuttle. Please continue with your work.'

Kao Chih watched the mech leave then turned sharply to Yolog, who was trundling back over to the console.

'What happened?' he said.

'I do apologise. Most unfortunate - a discharge from a faulty charging stall,' the Voth said as his long dextrous fingers played the bead keys. 'Much of my equipment is obsolete and in serious need of upgrades yet my orderbook is so full that I cannot afford to have machines standing idle. Certain older devices, however, retain their usefulness, like this manual interface which, despite its anachronistic nature, permits a more relaxed approach to neural tasking.' Suddenly Yolog ceased keying and lifted his hands from the silvery keys. Then a short melody of soft, descending notes sounded and he plucked out the memory crystal and returned it.

'Your course data, fully restored and updated.'

'Thank you, honourable Yolog. You have been most helpful.'

The Voth grinned, showing off a spectacular set of ochre-hued teeth.

'Yes, hmm, well, our transaction has certainly lightened my mood and provided a new store of musical mysteries to explore. And now you must return to my shuttle, which will take you back to my parts hold from whence you can continue your journey.'

'Are you accompanying us?'

'Work detains me, Human Kaachi - the repair of that junkheap of a charger, amongst others.'

'Then goodbye, Yolog, and good fortune.'

The Voth smiled, nodded and went over to examine the cabinet.

Back in the shuttle's small cockpit, Kao Chih found the mech floating lengthwise against the low ceiling.

'Our business is concluded, I trust,' it said.

Kao Chih held up the memory crystal, which was quickly probed with a brief needle of icy blue light.

'It seems to be in order. What delays our host?'

'Yolog says that he has to work on that faulty charger and ...'

'Passengers aboard,' interrupted an autovoice from somewhere in the cockpit. 'Are passengers ready to depart? - answer yes or no.'

'Yes!' Drazuma-Ha* said loudly. 'Before I am forced to deal with more trickery.'

'What do you mean?' said Kao Chih.

'That piece of theatre with the charging cabinet was meant as a cover for the burst-scan which was simultaneously directed at me from a ceiling-mounted device. But I had already reconfigured my sheathing shields before arriving here - his scandata will show something besides what he expects.'

'Which will be what?'

'Detailed schemata for a household valetbot, not unlike those on display back there.'

Laughing, Kao Chih wedged himself into the pilot couch and pulled the straps tight just as the shuttle declamped from its mooring. There was a lurch, a faint thrum of motors, and the Voth's craft flew sedately out of the garbage scow access. Drazuma-Ha* declared that he was suspending activity functions in order to run a systems check. Kao Chih nodded and leaned back, feasting his eyes on the vast intricacy of Tagreli Openport, its glittering clusters and spokes and hangars, the vessels of all sizes and shapes that came and went, and the innumerable hopcraft, taxis and pleasure-boats, all set against the muddy grey-green world around which it orbited. And wished his family and friends were there to see it too.

Back in his workshop, with the showroom lighting muted, Yolog sat at his console, looking at the female Human whose face filled half the screen.

'Got your message - what do you have for me?'

The Voth smiled hesitantly. 'Well, friend Corazon, I have a lead on a Human and a mech who needed their course data recovered ...'

'Are you saying that they were in your grasp and you let them walk out? Were they part of a larger group?' 'Ah, no, they ...'

'That wasn't part of our deal, friend Yolog.' The woman smiled, cold and dangerous. 'You are supposed to securely detain solitary Humans ...'

'It was the man's mech,' the Voth said hurriedly. 'It's an old, very powerful and cunning sentient machine, which foiled my attempt to scan it. If I had tried to imprison the Human it might have attacked me, even killed me!'