The Dying Light (11 page)

“So that means the people behind the Gauntlet had a little more than one week to get it here,” Roche said.

“How would they have got it past the clone warrior?” asked Haid.

“One assumes the breeders were slow-jumped as close to the sun as possible with a large relative velocity,” said the Box. “Once they were captured by Hintubet’s gravity and safely inside the chromosphere, there would have been very little the Sol Wunderkind could have done to interfere with them.”

“He wouldn’t have known what they were, after all,” said Roche.

“They would have demonstrated no overtly hostile behavior,” added Cane. “And there may have been more pressing matters demanding his attention.”

“That makes sense.” Roche turned her attention away from the sun and the device crippling it. “What else have we found?”

“We have a probe orbiting Cartha’s Planet,” said Kajic. “Everything seems in order there. Wight Station—the automated solar research installation—has not been damaged.”

“Because it was no threat,” Roche said. “Go on.”

“The same probe examined the Mattar Belt as it flew through,” Kajic went on. “There is evidence of activity on several asteroids, although only one prowling mine was observed in situ. Likewise, it had not been interfered with.”

“Any sign of people?”

“No. The inner system appears to be uninhabited, except by machines.”

“Perhaps we can use them to our advantage, then. Box, as we get closer, I want you to make contact with the AIs on Wight Station and the prowling mines. They may have recorded information that will help us plot the movements of the Sol Wunderkind.”

“I will do so,” said the Box. “If other installations have been attacked in the same manner as Guhr Outpost, the explosions should have been noticed by one or more of these observers. We may be able to pinpoint the exact time each attack took place.”

“Let me know what you find.” Roche turned to Kajic. “Any news from Jagabis?”

“The probe will be in position, relative to us, in about an hour. All transmissions ceased from that region twenty-five minutes ago, corresponding almost exactly with our arrival in the system.”

Roche mentally approximated the time it would take data traveling at light-speed to cross the system twice; as Kajic had said, it did match the time required for someone on Jagabis to observe the arrival of the
Ana Vereine,
then for the immediate cessation of transmissions to be observed by Kajic.

“So someone knows we’re here,” she said somberly.

“They knew where we
were
,” said Haid. “We’ve been camouflaged since we arrived, which still gives us some element of surprise.”

Roche nodded. “Have the other probes found anything?”

“Two used Gatamin as a gravity-whip, but neither reported anything unusual,” said Kajic. “Again, that planetary system was uninhabited.”

Roche took a moment to study the images of the smallish, once blue-green gas giant, third most distant from the sun. Apart from its remarkable rings, it was easy to overlook.

“Herensung likewise appears untouched,” Kajic went on, “at least from a distance. There were a few orbital communication relays that are now silent, but until the probe arrives we have no way of knowing what has happened to them.”

“That leaves Cemenid, and the double-jovian.” Roche was curious to see both. Cemenid, the largest planet, had been home to a COE communications base; Kukumat and Murukan were simply mysterious, on the opposite side of the system.

“Cemenid is a couple of hours away,” said Kajic. “The double will be at least another twelve.”

Roche couldn’t complain about that; she already had enough data to keep her occupied for days, and would soon have more. The double jovian was simply a bonus.

She applied herself to the information with a will and Maii’s help, trying to find any evidence of the Sol clone warrior’s passage. Occasional details surfaced from the growing files—wreckage of satellite here, an ion afterwash there—but no actual sightings. Wherever the Wunderkind was, he had been effective in hiding himself—so far. When the data from the other major planets arrived, she hoped to know where he was
not,
at least. Then it would become a more difficult quest, through the gulfs between planets or in the mess of dark bodies known as Autoville between Cemenid and Gatamin. She didn’t like to think that he might have hidden any farther out than that; Mishra’s Stake, the second dark-body halo, extended in a band one and half thousand million kilometers wide almost as far as Voloras. If he was hiding in there, he would be impossible to find.

The only consolation was that if he
was
in there, he would be effectively unable to surprise them. Which is why Roche felt safe ruling it out. He would never have allowed himself to reduce his options so severely, assuming Cane’s behavior was anything to go by.

said Maii,

Roche responded, still acutely aware of what had happened to Guhr Outpost.

Roche pondered this.

the reave said. Ana Vereine.
And besides, where are we now?>

do
find anything.>

anything
in there.>

Roche smiled at the irony in the blind Surin’s words, but she kept the thought carefully to herself.

“We’re picking up something unusual,” said Kajic. “From Jagabis?” Roche asked, pushing the data she had been studying to one side and focusing her attention on the main screen.

“No. It’s a tightbeam from roughly the same direction, though.”

“Contents?”

“A request for ID on a COE band. That’s all.” Kajic paused. “The transmission is coming once every minute, and we’re only picking up the fringes of it. Also, it’s blue-shifted, indicating that the source is moving toward us.”

Toward
them? Roche stiffened in her seat. “A ship?”

“That seems likely, although I haven’t detected any emissions yet.”

“Keep looking. Show me the message in full.”

A window on the main screen opened, displaying four brief lines of text:-

VESSEL ENTERING PALASIAN SYSTEM 0805

ID REQUESTED

RESPOND ASAP

QUOLMANN

“Who’s this ‘Quolmann’?” asked Haid.

“It’s not a who,” said Roche. “It’s COE Intelligence shorthand for ‘Trust me; I’m an ally.’”

“And should we?” asked Haid evenly.

“That depends,” said Cane. “If the code is common knowledge, then we should treat its use here with suspicion.”

“It’s not well known,” said Roche. “Otherwise it would have been changed. But I’m disinclined to trust someone even if they
are
from COE Intelligence.”

“So what do we do?” Kajic asked. “Ignore it?”

“We can’t afford to,” said Roche uneasily. “The message was sent to
us.
They may not know exactly where we are, given that we’re only picking up the edges of the tight- beam, but they do have a rough idea.”

“They could be sending the message to several likely locations,” suggested Cane.

Roche quickly dismissed the idea. “No, the ship is still coming in this direction.” She thought for a moment, then said: “We’re being predictable. Uri, I want to change course slightly; swing us away from the sun and to a wider approach. I know it’ll mean taking longer to get to Jagabis, but I think we have to do it—at least until we know how far away this ship is. At the same time, send a remote to reply to the tightbeam on our original course. Give it half an hour before sending our ID and the ‘Quolmann’ code word—that’s all. Keep the probe on our old heading until it receives a reply. It can relay any messages without putting the
Ana Vereine
at risk.”

“Consider it done,” said Kajic.

Roche read the text of the message again. “It’s almost as though they were expecting someone from COE Intelligence to come,” she mused.

“And have nothing to fear from them,” added Cane.

“That puts them in a minority,” said Haid wryly.

“The Jagabis data is being processed,” announced Kajic.

“Finally.” Roche prepared herself for another inrush of information. “Okay. Let’s see it.”

The probe had inserted itself into a polar orbit around the innermost jovian world of Palasian System. Even under Hintubet’s stark, crimson light, Roche was struck by the beauty of the planet. Its bands and vortices were manifold and varied, ranging from thick jet streams to thin wisps; its pole was a region of intense electromagnetic activity, the atmosphere constantly erupting with flashes of lightning. Its rings were small relative to those of some of the other planets, but they were there, framing a large number of moons—fourteen known, Roche recalled from the COE files. The largest of them, Aro, was also the largest solid body in the system; for that reason, plus its more hospitable distance from the sun, it had been chosen over Cartha’s Planet for the system’s permanent civilian base.

She studied the data intently, eager for—and yet simultaneously dreading—her first sight of Aro Spaceport and its close neighbor, Emptage City. Although she knew that the probe “had sent this view some hours ago, she couldn’t help but feel nervous about what she might see, as though she were more intimately involved than a mere observer. What if the Sol Wunderkind were to be attacking Aro at the very moment the moon came into view? What would she do? She fought to suppress the discomforting notion, because the truth was, there would be nothing she
could
do. They would be helpless to defend the base

The probe changed course as it crossed Jagabis’s north pole. Its tiny but powerful thrusters fired to insert it into an equatorial orbit intersecting that of Aro. Roche waited impatiently as the minutes ticked by until, finally, the red dot of the moon appeared over the bulge of the distant horizon.

The dot became a disc. The probe’s thrusters ceased firing; momentum and the pull of Jagabis’s gravity would complete the maneuver. The last leg of its approach would be conducted with as few emissions as possible.

The disc swelled steadily. A hazy atmosphere, rich in methane and sulfur, softened its edges. The hemisphere facing the probe was mostly in shadow, making details hard to discern, and Hintubet’s bloody glare in the background only complicated the matter. Roche watched as Kajic tried various enhancement routines on the image, methodically refining the picture.

“I can’t see the orbital tower,” Roche said.

“What’s that in the southeast quadrant?” Haid pointed. “Another crater?”

“No,” said the Box. “Remember the scale. An impact that large would have cracked the moon in two.”

“The COE maps have two methane seas listed,” said Roche. “That must be one of them.”

“It’s a little hard to make out at the moment,” said Kajic, “but I think you’re right, Morgan.”

“We’ll soon find out,” she said.

The moon expanded until its shadowed image filled most of the screen. Red sunlight glinted on an object in orbit around it, startling Roche until she realized that the telemetry data was still empty of signs of technological activity. An abandoned satellite, she guessed. Or wreckage. Whatever it was, it caught the light twice more before vanishing from view. Kajic’s display showed several other unidentified and inactive objects, invisible to her limited senses, also in distant orbits, and she followed them instead to pass the time. A similar display on Haid’s console revealed that he too was tracking them, ready to respond if one of them made any move at all—or showed signs of life.

The probe slid neatly into a geostationary orbit above Aro Spaceport and turned its instruments downward.

“Radar has located the main launch field,” said Kajic intently. “No other clear landmarks, yet.”

“The main dome?” asked Roche.

“I have something that might be an outline, but...” He shook his head. “It’s not clear. The dome might be down. There’s no way to be sure until the sun rises.”

“How long will that be?”

‘Ten minutes or so.”

“Try infrared,” she suggested. “If there are survivors, they’ll show up as hot spots.”

“I’m not finding anything, Morgan,” Kajic said after a moment. “It’s uniformly cool down there. Even the launch field.”

“No fires?” asked Haid. “Traces of explosions?”

“Aro has an atmosphere and weather,” said Kajic. “Excess heat will dissipate relatively quickly.”

“But there’s no evidence of the sort of damage we saw at Guhr Outpost, is there?” Roche studied the image on the main screen in detail, clutching at anything that would justify optimism. “There might still be a chance.”

“Underground,” said Cane.

“The main dome was fully exposed,” said Kajic. “In fact, it was built in the walls of an old crater, so it needed only a roof.”

“But the spaceport might have subterranean facilities,” said Roche.

“The only way to check would be to go down there.” Haid glanced around the bridge. “Any volunteers?”

“Let’s see if we can’t contact them first.” Roche swiveled away from the screen. “Uri, have the probe broadcast a brief message asking for ID. Use the ‘Quolmann’ code. There may be a connection between survivors here and the ship signaling us.”

“The people speaking the Sol command language?” asked Haid.

“Speaking it badly,” Cane put in.

“Whatever,” said Haid. “I’d be wary of letting them know we’re anywhere near them just yet—if they’re even there at all, that is.”

“I know,” said Roche. “That’s what the probe is for. Send the signal, Uri. Repeat it once.”