The Touchstone Trilogy (34 page)

"Communication," Ruuel said eventually, and there were a few hesitant nods of agreement.

"Getting an aether reading from it," Maze commented, then said over the interface: "Orders?"

The bluesuit in charge, Tehara, said: "Take contact readings, but no more until we return.  Analysis of the scans taken in the interim may give us a better idea of how to approach it."

Between them the two Sight squads had four Place Sight talents.  "Go unenhanced, Sefen," Taarel said.  "We're still not entirely certain if there is any distortion in play for enhanced Sights."

He nodded while the other three – Ruuel, Halla and Marana – made their gloves flow back into the sleeves of their suits.  Place Sight talents often go about fully gloved, since touching an object can give them a deeper reading, like when Ruuel was handling my diary back in medical.  I've seen enough of
The Hidden War
now to know that Place Sight talents have a great deal of difficulty with the information they can sense, and avoid accidentally touching people and objects.  The actor on the show is always being fraught and sensitive and locked down.

Marana, a short but muscular girl from Third Squad, was first to try, but drew her hand back immediately.  "Aether effect," she said, frowning.

Halla and Ruuel both tried, but you could see it was hurting them just pressing their fingers lightly against the stone surface and they quickly stopped.

"Try nullifying the negative effects with Devlin while reading," Taarel suggested, but then she – everyone with Combat Sight – went on alert, saying: "Threat," out loud.

Most of them stepped back away from the platform, creating the nanoliquid blades from their suits.  I stepped back as well, aware of Ketzaren and Alay shifting to flank me, and then covered my ears at the sound which followed.  Whale song has nothing on it.

"Approaching rapidly," Maze said, fortunately in a pause in the noise.  "Overwhelming threat.  Get Devlin out of here."

Ketzaren started to move, but Ruuel was faster.  He didn't have time to be careful, just grabbed my wrist and yanked me forward, pressing my hand down on the platform.  The noise changed, just as loud, but a different pitch, and everyone reacted as if they'd missed being bitten by a shark.  Ruuel said something, eyes gone all narrow and extra-black, and I didn't even try and raise my voice to respond, saying: "Can't hear you over Ddura," even as I realised that I was the only one acting like I'd been trapped in a belltower at the wrong moment.

"It's a communication device," came in text through the interface.  "Communicate."

The logs attached to the mission report have twenty different views of the look I gave him in response.  An "Are you high?" caption would fit it well.  I was actually thinking "In whale song?"  But what was I going to do?  Say no?  Especially since everyone was acting as if the shark was circling for another run.

Being suddenly expected to do something instead of standing around was disconcerting to the max.  I bought some time closing my eyes and trying to sort out what I was hearing.  The Ddura noise was so drawn out and huge it was hard to encompass it.  But I was sure it wasn't words, not anything I had a chance of recognising.  It was repeating the same long 'hhhhuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaa' over and over.  It felt like a question.  The Ddura had stopped attacking when I touched the platform and was asking me something.  So I tried to guess what an artificially created aurora cloud built to kill monsters would ask someone who showed up and tried to talk to it.

As always it sounded sad, mournful.  I had no idea if it really was, or if it that was its noise for growling boisterously, but the idea led to one obvious possibility: everyone on the planet had left.  If I thought of it as a big (huge-mungous) dog which had been bred to protect the Muinans, and then abandoned, then it would be all where is everyone, what should I do, I'm so lonely, please love me.  Sheer guesswork, but treating it like a dog was the only thing I could think of in the middle of all that noise.

Since the noise was apparently in my head, I didn't bother trying to speak, just started thinking over and over: "Shut up!  Shut up!  Be quiet!  Shut up!  Quiet!  Quiet!"

To my eternal surprise it tapered off, making a brief eager hhhhhaaaaaaa sound.  "Good Ddura," I thought, feeling mildly idiotic.  "Good Ddura.  Be quiet.  Good Ddura."

I opened my eyes, trying to think while my head recovered from its noise-pounding, and looking across at the Setari on the far side of the platform, who were watching me intently.  Immediately the Ddura made a hhhhiiiiiiiiiiii noise, not nearly so loud, but all anxious and fretful and then, "mmmnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn".

"Threat rising," Maze said, tersely.

"Stop!"  I thought.  "Down.  Friends!  Friends!"

It made the hhhiiiiiiiii noise again.  It wanted to protect me, I think.  And that was the problem: it didn't recognise the Tarens, it thought they were the enemy the same way the aether did.  And it's pretty hard to convince a dog that the scary strangers all poised to attack are friends.

Keeping my right hand on the platform, I reached to the left.  Ruuel had let go of me – I later found some nice bruises where he'd grabbed me – so I took his wrist and pressed his hand to the platform, keeping hold the same way I had Selkie during my aether testing.  "Friend," I thought, then carefully let go of Ruuel, watching him wince as the aether in the platform immediately began reacting to him.

"Friend," I thought, but was getting the hhhiiii noise again.  "Friend," I repeated, putting a lot of command into it.  "This is a Muinan.  He belongs here.  This is his home.  He belongs."

I felt something, not from the Ddura, but the platform itself seemed to go icy and slick beneath my hand and then settle down.  Ruuel straightened, eyes opening very wide, and he said: "It's not reject–"  but then the Ddura started going "Hhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!! Hhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!! Hhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!"  so loudly I swear every blood vessel in my head considered popping.  Ruuel didn't act like he could hear it, but he had both hands pressed to the platform and was talking, eyes still all wide and surprised.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!" I thought over and over at the Ddura and it quieted down a little, but kept going hhhhhaaaaaaa! in this mountainous burble.  A lot happier about Ruuel than it had been me.

"Everyone put hand," I said out loud, not even able to hear myself speak.  One thing about Setari discipline is they're quick to obey a command.  According to the logs, Maze said: "Do it," and everyone did, despite the pain it caused.

"These are Muinans," I thought, to the Ddura or the platform or both.  "They belong here.  This is their home.  They belong."

The Ddura exploded into hysteria – it really did behave a lot like an abandoned dog – and I had to resort to this kind of mental shriek in return: "SHUT UP!!!!" which startled it into pausing.  "Bad Ddura.  Be quiet.  Be quiet.  Good Ddura.  Yes.  Quiet.  Okay.  Good Ddura, you can protect the Muinans, can't you?  That's a good Ddura.  Protect the Muinans."  I paused, then looked over at the drone on the far side of the room.  "These drones belong to the Muinans.  Protect the drones.  Good Ddura."  I tried mentally picturing the
Litara
as well, but my head was pounding like anything, so have no idea if it was any use going on about: "This is a Muinan ship.  Protect the ships.  Good Ddura."

It started doing the hhhhhaaaaaaa thing again, far more interested in the Setari it could sense touching the platform than anything I was saying to it, so I sighed and gave up, rubbing my temples instead.

Ketzaren took my arm.  "Do you need to sit down?"

"Need Ddura shut up.  So loud."

It seemed that I was still the only one who could hear it, which I considered very unfair.  A lot of the Setari were looking shell-shocked, fingering the platform cautiously.  Eeli was crying in a happy, overwhelmed kind of way.

"First, return Devlin to the
Litara
," said Hara.  "Third, Fourth, Seventh, finish your contact readings and then return."

I didn't need any encouragement, coming close to dragging Ketzaren out of the room.  Back in the amphitheatre, the only thing I noticed was that the cats had all gone.  First moved into formation around me, though Ketzaren stayed letting me lean on her.  I wasn't in a falling-down state, but my head was pounding so incredibly that it was hard to concentrate on where I was walking.  I ignored everything they said to me, since the Ddura was still enormously loud all the way through the town, calming down only a little.  The greensuits were waiting for us and of course I was taken straight back to medical, but for once I didn't care because I really wanted some painkillers.  I'd dropped out of the mission channel as soon as I was on the sled, and really wanted quiet and dark.

"I'm accessing your log, Caszandra," Maze said, while Ista Tremmar unkindly made me sit through a scan before even thinking about giving me drugs.  I watched his face, and was meanly pleased to see him start and grimace.

"Loud," I said.  I could still hear the damn thing, all the way out on the lake, but fortunately fairly dimmed by then.  He nodded but didn't respond, watching the log presumably with the sound lowered while Ista Tremmar finished her scan and finally consented to fill me up to the eyeballs with painkillers.  She said I could go so long as I drank a lot of liquid and lay down, which was exactly what I wanted to do.  Maze, face all abstract, led me back to the canteen, and I found the rest of First Squad waiting, a meal already set out, though they were only picking at theirs.  I think they were listening to my log as well, from the way they kept almost-wincing.  My thoughts weren't recorded, so it was all Ddura-noise.

"Can you describe what happened from your point of view?"  Maze asked, while I drank down a lot of cold, tingly drink.

"Ddura thought you were Ionoth, think," I said, wishing the painkillers would work quicker.  "Didn't understand what it was saying, but guess from tone of noises.  It like big pet, missing Muinans, kill anything it not recognise.  I try tell Ddura that Ruuel was a Muinan, and the platform did something, and then the Ddura realise Ruuel not an Ionoth and get all happy.  And even louder.  Is Ddura thing been making ships explode?"

"That's been brought up as a possibility in the past."  Maze shook his head.  "It was certainly approaching with intent to kill.  When you touched the platform, it withheld the attack, but was still clearly hostile to us.  And then very strongly the opposite.  The Place Sights could feel something of its emotions through the platform, once it stopped reacting against them."

"It knew I not Muinan," I said, thoughtfully.  "Much happier about Setari, once stopped thinking you Ionoth.  But it was platform which changed way reacted to you."

"Ruuel is using an analogy of security clearance.  The device allowed you, who for some reason have clearance, to identify us to the 'system'."

"Our turn to have aether tests now," Lohn said.  He had his arm around Mara, which was the first time I'd seen them publicly behave like a couple.  I think everyone was pretty overwhelmed.

"My turn laugh when Lohn say silly things."  I smiled, then sighed and rubbed my temple.  "I try tell it that should protect drones and ships and things, but don't think it listen.  Too busy being happy.  What happen next?"

Maze lifted one shoulder.  "We exceeded the mission brief by an order of magnitude.  The result is very good, but completely beyond what we were expecting or had planned for.  I don't know if it will delay or bring forward the proposed second trip."

"What happens next is you catch up on your rest," Zee said, squeezing my shoulder.  "This is a large development, but in the short term there's a two kasse journey back to base.  And then at minimum a day of argument, tests and analysis."

"Still huge changes," Lohn said.  "We mightn't have solved the overall problem, but our progress on Muina has been entirely stifled by this...security clearance issue."

"The Ddura doesn't explain all of the deaths," Alay pointed out.

"But most of them," Ketzaren said.  "Almost certainly most of them, if it's what has been causing ships to explode.  Even massives are minor compared to that, particularly when KOTIS can use weaponry without risk to structures.  My guess is that there'll be an attempt to establish a serious foothold around this town of yours.  And from there we'll search for information about the Muinans of the past, and the way the Pillars were constructed."

"One thing Lantaren not know but," I said.  "How
their
security clearance wiped?  They understood all that, they made Ddura.  They supposed to be more powerful psychic than Setari.  And it kill them.  What happen, built settlement here, then security clearance wipe again?"

"Very good point."  Maze had been playing with his food, and I was willing to bet he'd been thinking over the same possibility.  "I certainly won't be recommending any rush."

"Could Setari fight Ddura?"

"Not a chance."  Zee glanced at Maze, then repeated.  "Not a chance."

"It's the first time we've been close enough to one to get some estimate of what level we'd face," Maze said.  "It's a massive made from pure energy which, it seems, can attack in real-space from near-space.  I am very glad not to have had to try.  And on that note, go lie down.  I don't want to see you again until you've stopped looking like you've been stepped on."

Zee came with me, waiting while I hit the bathroom and then seeing me settled back in my chair-pod.

"You're upset about something," she said, one hand on the pod's lid.  "More than just the headache."

"Didn't want become more important," I said.  If I'm the only one who can give people security clearance, no-one here will ever be willing to let me leave.

Zee gave me an unexpectedly amused look.  "I thought it was something like that.  Just consider the alternative, if you hadn't been able to stop it."  She gestured for me to lie down, adding: "You can make the cover opaque, if the light bothers you.  Get some sleep."

It was a fair point.  We would have all died.  Zee definitely knows how to quash signs of self-pity.