The Galaxy Game (34 page)

A quiet voice interjected, ‘We will manage things from here, Doctor Daniyel. Rest, recover and do not lose hope. We have resources and allies. We will find a way.’

Heads turned. The Patrona was standing in the doorway. ‘Isahenalaatye, Serendipity, come with me. I have a meeting to attend, and I will need you both to be present.’

*

The Patrona’s workroom glowed almost blue, filled with several holos in rich, deep-space indigo studded with brightly coloured points that represented orbital stations, satellites, moons, planets and stars in various degrees of scale and angles of perspective. They hung low, suspended from the ceiling, but bounced up or glided aside obligingly to accommodate passing heads and shoulders. The Patrona spun one with her finger as she walked past it on her way to the room’s central dais. Trailing behind her were Isahenalaatye, Serendipity and two of the top-ranking Zhinuvians on Ntshune: Raizven, one of the senior engineers on the Transit Project and leader of the team tasked to create new transits; and Hydlor, coordinator of the trade and communications rosters, who balanced urgency, importance and availability of credit, and assigned each cargo and message its appropriate place in the schedule.

Settling herself on the dais, the Patrona banished all but two of the holos with one hand and motioned with the other to her guests, inviting them to make themselves comfortable. As they did so, she activated floor-screens in a semicircle around her and beckoned the holos closer.

‘Two of you do not know why you are here,’ she stated. ‘Isahenalaatye and Serendipity, could you please brief our Zhinuvian colleagues on the port incident and what it means for our plans for Terra?’

Serendipity told them what she had witnessed and Isahena added Dr Daniyel’s account concerning the Sadiri on Terra. The Zhinuvians looked at each other, nonplussed, and leaned closer to take in every word. The Patrona watched them intently until Isahena and Serendipity completed their report.

‘You did not know that New Sadira were operating in Terran oceans?’ she asked.

Serendipity felt a shiver in the atmosphere. The meeting had gone beyond mere courtesy. The Patrona was actively assessing their emotions and compelling truth, demonstrating not only her innate abilities as an Ntshune but also her powers as nexus.

The Zhinuvians reacted to the strong-arm tactic with fear. ‘We did not!’ Hydlor insisted. ‘There has been no information on that, not a rumour, not a hint. This is as much of a shock to us as it is to you.’

Raizven agreed fervently. ‘Remember, we were the ones who told you that the cartels have been infiltrating Terra for decades. Why would we undercut our own people and give the Sadiri a free run?’

The Patrona glanced down at one of the floor-screens. The shift of her attention was like a sudden easing of pressure. ‘Why indeed? I can think of a few reasons why, including the possibility that you are trying to stay friends with every potential player in the game, but that is something you might not know. My next question is this: how will you help us in this new situation? Your technical assistance, even your non-interference in Cygnian and Ntshune trade, have been a boon, but I must reiterate what I said before to your superiors on Zhinu A. The stakes are not high enough for you. I do not sense that you are fully committed to this project. How can you reassure me?’

Raizven looked quickly at Hydlor and raised his hands helplessly. ‘We could work on creating a new transit for Ntshune to Terra.’

‘Is that what you are offering?’ the Patrona said sharply, her eyes on them once more while her fingers remained poised on the screen by her right knee. ‘Is that the best, the most effective course of action?’

The two Zhinuvians only stared back in terror, frozen like insects caught in amber. She gentled her voice a little. ‘We do not have much time. If there is a decision to be made, you must make it quickly.’

Hydlor got to his feet hastily. ‘Five days, Esteemed Patrona. You will have your answer in five days, I promise.’

Dissatisfied, but resigned, she nodded. ‘Five days or earlier, Hydlor. There is too much happening and we are falling farther and farther behind.’

She dismissed them both and looked tiredly towards Isahena and Serendipity. ‘Did I do too much?’

Isahenalaatye swallowed, unsure how to take this invitation to criticise. ‘That depends on the results, Esteemed Patrona.’

She smiled. ‘Well put, Isahena. That is true; it does indeed.’

Chapter Sixteen

It was a pleasure to sit on Rafi’s head to wake him up, just like the old days back at the Lyceum. He thrashed and kicked and threw me off, no longer the short and scrawny boy I could subdue in minutes. I landed on my backside on the floor, cursed him and laughed. I’d missed him.

‘Why are you waking me up in the middle of the night?’ he grumbled.

‘We’re going on an adventure, Moo! Your lovely Patrona sent me to collect you. Serendipity is already up. It’s the three of us once more! Will you please get up and cover your body with some garments appropriate to this quest? Or, to put it more directly, where is your flight suit and can you be wearing it within one minute?’

Rafi moaned and complained, but he gradually attained a vertical position, slowly went from slack-faced somnolence to a determined expression and muttered, ‘Yes, yes,’ nodding to himself. I thought he was a little unhinged until I noticed the new spidery tracing behind his ear, blue-black on dark-amber, still small and reasonably discreet.

He got dressed. ‘I assume you have been briefed?’ he said to me.

Pompous
moujin
. I answered in kind. ‘I have my itinerary and task list. It may not be the same as yours.’

‘Then let’s compare. We’re off to Zhinu A first, correct?’

‘Yes,’ I confirmed, pushing him through the door with my palm flat between his shoulder blades. ‘And that will be my first and last stop for a while. Given recent events, I plan to have some follow-up discussions with various magnates.’

‘Ah, well, it’s good to see you, however briefly. Because, if I understand correctly, I’m then off to Terra?’

‘You most certainly are!’

‘Zhinu A has a Terran transit?’

‘Kept secret for millennia! They
are
impressive, aren’t they!’

He shook his head, not in disagreement but as if he was trying to get too many facts to settle in his skull. ‘And I will meet Serendipity there. She is travelling with a backup mindship crew.’

‘Correct. Now hurry and let’s get to the transit dome.’

I love it when a judicious bluff pays off. Zhinu A was going all in, gifting their transit and base on Terra to the Transit Project to use as they saw fit to the benefit of the entire galaxy. Not for free, however, and I could not blame them. I was there to help start trade negotiations and talk them down from a giddy high of a sudden influx credit, but I could be realistic about it. They wanted concessions, they deserved concessions. The transit was fast, but we still needed Zhinuvian transport for larger cargo and passenger movement. None of us was saying it yet, but now we had better control over transport and communications, I was sure that the near-moribund Galactic Patrol would be next up for reorganisation and revival. I heard about what’s been happening on Terra, and we’re going to need some form of military reinforcement.

That’s someone else’s job, though. I’m happily occupied where I am.

*

The transit to Zhinu A had barely enough personnel for a Wall to be needed. Rafi and Oestengeryok were the only Vanguard runners. The remainder were their passengers – the Patrona, Raizven, Ntenman, Lian, Waneshianeso and Zariah Fa, the latter two now fully recovered from the mindship accident. On arrival, Ntenman promptly disappeared to ‘get a start on his task list’. The Patrona surprised Rafi when she said that she would be staying on as witness and facilitator to what Raizven was about to do, which was to allow them to go through the transit to Terra and then close it.

‘This transit on Zhinu A will now be linked permanently to Ntshune, and that is how I shall return,’ she said. ‘You will return to Ntshune via the Terra transit. If there are any difficulties, any at all, use the mindship backup.’

Oesten also remained with the Patrona, leaving Rafi the sole runner to transport Lian, Waneshianeso and Zariah Fa to Terra. ‘Easy run,’ he reassured Rafi. ‘The Wall keeps everything stable, so stay focused and you’ll be fine.’

Rafi nodded, trying to look unworried, especially in front of his passengers. ‘Of course, Oesten. Safe run to you.’

*

After the buzz faded, Rafi’s first impression was of dimly lit fog. The atmosphere was thick with mist and pools of water collected in every dip and crevice in the stone floor. He inhaled and coughed. There was enough oxygen, but there was something not quite right about the air. He detached himself, swung around to unlatch the passenger pods, then carefully made his way down the steps, which were already damp with condensation. The gravity felt weaker than on Cygnus Beta or Ntshune but stronger than Punartam. He did not try to test it with any bouncing.

Waneshianeso and Zariah Fa immediately put the geosensors on their wrists to work. ‘High levels of carbon dioxide,’ Zariah said. ‘Put your breathers on.’

Rafi obeyed immediately. He looked up and saw only more rock, uneven and stained in the dim light. He began to search for the source of the light.

‘This isn’t very exciting,’ Lian muttered. ‘Where are we?’

‘Give us a minute,’ Waneshi said, a slight edge to her tone. She went over to Zariah and they began to talk in hushed tones.

‘There you are! I thought I heard something.’ The familiar voice bounced happily off the rock, an incongruous intrusion into their moment of anxiety.

‘Naraldi!’ Rafi shouted, and added cheekily, ‘I thought you were keeping to the sidelines?’

‘I am not yet so jaded that I cannot appreciate a historic moment,’ Naraldi replied, walking with slow caution along a downward-sloping path. ‘Why are you lurking in the basement? Come up! It’s much better on the upper levels.’

Rafi smiled fondly to himself as they followed Naraldi up the path, understanding at last that this was the Patrona’s gift to him: his name on the records as the runner for the first modern transit between Terra and Ntshune. The light grew brighter and brighter until they came up into a vast empty space of cooler, drier air and pale blue light.

Naraldi stopped and looked around with great satisfaction. ‘This must be where the Ntshune perfected their ice-construction techniques. Very impressive.’

Rafi looked up at the ceiling of blue ice, slightly blurred by the familiar haze of a biodome’s boundary. He grinned. ‘It’s like Janojya!’

Zariah did not look any happier than before. ‘I appreciate their dedication to maintaining the transit and the dome but we’re near the South Pole. How much can we do from here? This is the harshest climate on Terra.’

Waneshi interrupted. ‘You’re bringing a Cygnian mentality to the problem. Remember Ntshune? Centuries of survival in an ice age? I don’t think they will see this place the same way you do.’

‘And this could be an advantage in terms of security,’ Lian pointed out. ‘We don’t have to worry about anyone stumbling over us accidentally.’

‘Where’s Serendipity?’ Rafi asked suddenly.

‘She’s waiting with my ship at the reservoirs,’ Naraldi said. ‘Speaking of which, do you have space to take her back with you? Since I’m here, I thought I might look around a little.’

‘Spy, you mean,’ said Rafi. ‘Do you really think that’s wise?’

‘Please, no more clashes with New Sadira,’ Waneshi added.

‘Can we go back now?’ Serendipity’s voice called out.

They looked around, baffled, until they saw her head ascending from another path leading to the lower levels. She looked reasonably alert, but tired and a little stressed.

Rafi smiled as she approached and took the opportunity to savour the moment. He was standing on the Earth of his ancestors, he had now seen five planets including all four of the crafted worlds, his childhood crush was about to join him in a transcendent experience which he would control using the talent he had once feared and hated . . . and it was simply part of a day’s work. It was thrilling that his dreams come true could be made so mundane, so beautifully ordinary, so ridiculously normal.

Quietly laughing at the cosmic joke, he looked at Serendipity and said, ‘Let’s go.’

*

A new hall had been constructed in a patch of wilds between the Haneki domain and the Transit Project domain. It was a veritable glass palace with trees, shrubs and creeping plants pressing greenly against the walls as if peering in at the spectacle. Globes of sun-like light floated high above the room, roofless as was the custom, and it felt open and airy in spite of the number of delegates, observers, recorders and spectators crammed into the space.

The Galactic Consortium Meeting was in session, the second extraordinary meeting of the post-Galactic War era.

Serendipity marvelled at the ability of the Ntshune recorders to transcribe overlapping voices with ease. She was trying to learn to listen but she knew she was cheating, using light touches of telepathy when her ears became overwhelmed. She was keeping records for the Union of Pilots, which had recognised her commitment to the mindships and accepted her as an auxiliary member. There was so much of importance to report.

Given the advances in the new transit system, Ntshune was the natural choice for the Meeting. The results were mixed. Cygnus Beta, Ntshune, Sadira-on-Cygnus with the Union of Pilots and Zhinu A formed a comfortable bloc of shared interests and approaches. Punartam was trying to re-enter the game as a newly formed Zhinuvian–Punarthai alliance, an entity which most delegates did not take very seriously. The cartels, thwarted by the closure of the only known working transit and stymied by local sabotage in their efforts to reopen it, were scrabbling to legitimise themselves in some other way. Regardless, Punartam was experiencing a steady haemorrhage of academics and personnel by means unknown (or at least unreported), to the enrichment of research centres on Ntshune and Cygnus Beta. To add insult to injury, Ntshune had opened another transit well beyond the reach and influence of the Metropolis in the small city of Saro, now listed as the fastest growing urban development in the galaxy.