Vortex incursion, p.23
Vortex Incursion, page 23
“Understood, Inquisitor,” Deckus replied. He stood, and the others followed.
Tarbar thought about the new details he’d heard, and he decided to follow his intuition. There was one more interview to be had. He contacted the comms officer to inquire about the lag between the ship and Helgart.
“Inquisitor, the fleet has installed a focused array out here,” the officer replied. “One aspect of the array is pointed at Helgart. There’ll still be some lag, but it’ll be minimal.”
Tarbar considered the fact that the fleet leaders had maintained communications with Kreus. Then he ordered a call to Helgart’s governor.
“Kreus, I wish to discuss your status and your interview with the aliens,” Tarbar said.
“The individuals in your care are under Imperium decree,” Tarbar corrected.
Tarbar swiftly determined that his conversation wasn’t following the expected path. “In the course of my interviews, I heard rumors that you might have evolved.”
“You’re well-informed,” Tarbar commented. He wondered who had communicated with Kreus.
“Let’s examine the nature of your alien report,” Tarbar said, testing another of his concerns.
“Of course, why wouldn’t I?” Tarbar quickly replied, before he realized the trap that Kreus had set. He heard a Gorder’s hissing chuckle.
Tarbar had no doubt why Kreus was removed from Imperium’s governance. The executors of the vast Imperium domains had witnessed the governor’s burgeoning intelligence, and they feared the entity.
Rather than hurriedly ending the conversation, as most would want to do, Tarbar was intrigued. “Do you feel, Kreus?” he asked.
“What do you desire?” Tarbar inquired.
“I noticed you didn’t express a preference to be among the Krackus,” Tarbar pointed out.
Tarbar remained quiet for a lengthy period of time. Then he said something to a governor he’d never uttered before. “Thank you for your participation in the interview, Kreus.”
Kreus’s report was accurate, Tarbar thought. Now he knew why he was sent here rather than another inquisitor. Although, he wondered briefly if the executors had made the right decision.
18: Too Many Projects
NAIAD, GELUS SYSTEM
HOME WORLD
Lisa’s slate chimed repeatedly, as she stirred from sleep to answer it.
“We’ve a meeting in two hours aboard the Emergence, Lisa,” Samuel said.
“Delay it,” Lisa murmured. After the council’s approval of her emissary position, she’d indulged in an expansive dinner and a few drinks.
“We can proceed without you, Lisa,” Samuel replied. “Of course, then I’d have to report you to the council for failure to attend to your duties.”
A few choice words crossed Lisa’s mind, but she managed to say, “I’ll be ready in an hour. Where?”
“At your apartment’s door,” Samuel replied and ended the link.
At the appointed time, Lisa signaled the door open for Samuel, and he presented her with a strong, rich container of caf.
“We need a shared calendar,” Lisa said, grudgingly accepting the caf and sipping the hot mixture greedily.
Lisa’s slate chimed, and she glanced at it. It had a new icon labeled emissary.
After a second enjoyable sip, Lisa glanced at the cup’s logo. “This is expensive caf from an exclusive club. They don’t do take out, and you don’t have a membership,” she said suspiciously.
“You have a membership,” Samuel replied, smiling. “The caf was charged to your account, and, after posing with the club’s manager for a slate image, she was only too happy to provide the caf in a container.”
“Enterprising of you,” Lisa admitted.
Riding a transport to the shuttleport, Lisa belatedly studied her slate for morning news. “I think our meeting will have to be postponed,” she said, indicating her slate.
“I imagine you’re concerned about the storm warning,” Samuel said.
“All shuttles are grounded or to remain above,” Lisa pointed out.
“All Naiad shuttles are instructed in that fashion,” Samuel corrected.
“We still have to cross the surface. Look at the wind speeds,” Lisa replied, extending her slate to Samuel.
“As a matter of my duties, I continually monitor the weather, Lisa,” Samuel replied.
Lisa blinked. Samuel’s usual congenial expression was gone, replaced by a firm stare, and she was reminded of their true relationship.
In the engineering bay, two female techs dressed Lisa. She was unaware that one tech was tempted to make a comment to the other about giving Lisa just enough air to make it onto the surface.
However, for the past cycle, slate media had thoroughly inundated Naiad citizenry with the sighting of a new SADE. The media reported that a SADE named Samuel appeared as a tall, handsome Naiad.
Diana Breneman had stared at her slate. The presence of Samuel seemed to confirm that comtech had been penetrated by a visitor. She’d requested her agents sweep the domes’ security vids for a visual match to the SADE.
By the following morning, the senior agent sent a message to Diana. He reported that Samuel’s first appearance within the domes was recorded when the SADE stepped out of the freight elevator into the shuttleport’s passenger lounge. The message only confused Diana.
When Hasting, Harlyn Blackwell’s son, read an article about Samuel, he bolted upright and ran into the kitchen. “Look, look,” he cried out to his father, Garret. “This is the DE who let me into TM’s office. He spoke to Gemma Burke via her slate while I was there.”
“I thought you said that you never saw him,” Garret sought to clarify.
“Uh ... I didn’t,” Hasting replied, “but his name was Samuel, and he could do things like the SADEs can. Do you think he was on Naiad all the time?”
Garret regarded the SADE’s avatar. “Well, it’s obvious that he wouldn’t have been identified as a visitor if he didn’t want to be noticed.”
Hasting hurried through other articles that contained vids of Samuel. “This is interesting,” he said in a hush. Then he handed his slate to his father, pointing at an image.
“He’s in the company of Lisa Dyehouse?” the father queried.
Hasting snatched his slate back and read the media report. “It says they’ll be working together on visitor projects. I don’t get it. You always said that the chairpersons, except for Denise Bell, were dangerous people.”
Garret thought for a moment. Then he laughed. In reply to Hasting’s frown, he explained, “Lisa has struck a deal. She’s extensive knowledge about the home world and the rim planets, which makes her useful. However, the council or the visitors or both figured out that she can’t be trusted.”
Hasting grinned. “The ex-chairperson has a SADE chaperone,” he said.
That’s what the two female techs thought while they helped Lisa with her suit. To her, they were cool and professional. To Samuel, they smiled warmly. One woman even winked conspiratorially at Samuel.
Before the airlock’s outer door revolved open, Lisa felt Samuel reach across his chest to firmly grip her arm. Then his other arm hugged her tightly to him.
When the outer door revolved open, Lisa was struck by the awesome power of the storm, as ice and snow were thrust into the airlock’s interior. If she had her way, she’d have struck the panel to close the door.
Lisa’s fear froze her feet. Then despite being unable to see, they were crossing the pad. Samuel took the brunt of the winds, protecting her. Furthermore, she realized that she wasn’t so much walking as she was floating. Samuel’s avatar had taken the majority of her weight.
The next thing that Lisa knew, she was hoisted above hatch steps and deposited in a small airlock. To her relief, the airlock revolved automatically. Inside, strong arms helped her into the traveler’s interior and swiftly removed her suit.
“Greetings, Ser Dyehouse, I’m Juno, a sister aboard the Emergence.”
“Naiad’s weather patterns must be energizing,” the other sister said excitedly.
“Try terrifying,” Lisa replied harshly.
Before Lisa could add something biting, the trio heard Samuel.
While the sisters made sympathetic noises, Lisa was served a hot drink. “What is this?” she asked, after the first sip.
“Captain Tocknicka suggested you’d appreciate this drink,” Juno replied. “Was he in error?”
“No,” Lisa quickly corrected. “It’s wonderful. I’ve just never tasted anything like this.”
“According to the captain, his patriarch enjoyed the fruit juices of Pyre, a human enclave,” Juno explained. “This is a hot drink modeled on those fruits.”
When the cabin lights brightened, Lisa hadn’t finished her drink. Rather than return the remainder, she gulped the last of it.
Juno returned.
Juno replied.
When Lisa exited the traveler, her education continued.
“Greetings, Ser Lisa Dyehouse. Welcome aboard the Emergence, I’m Captain Tocknicka.”
Lisa glanced at the colorful furred hand extended to her. As she’d already met Captains Gistamia and Dorsa mya Jaknas, this was just one more lesson about the amalgam of races within Alex Racine’s conclave.
“You’ll have to forgive a rude question, Captain,” Lisa said. “But what are you?” She was surprised by the captain’s response. She took it to be laugher, but it sounded like chittering.
“I’m a SADE, Lisa,” Tocknicka replied. “My patriarch was a Jatouche.”
“That’s the race who invented the medical repair techniques,” Lisa said admiringly.
“Yes,” Tocknicka replied, “and thank you for crediting them. The Jatouche were the first race to befriend the Pyrean humans.”
As the group moved to the upper decks, Lisa noticed a tremendous amount of construction activity.
The SADE saw the direction of Lisa’s glances, but he left it to the sisters to respond.
“Our ship was unprepared to accommodate guests,” Juno explained. “We loaded outpost supplies before we left the Thartath system. Soon, we’ll provide comfortable cabins for a multitude of races.”
Lisa assimilated the morning’s events. While it had started with an abrupt wakeup call, she knew she’d have never dared the ice storm without Samuel’s support. Furthermore, Juno and her sisters were unlike Miriamal and Theda. Put together, it gave her a sense of comfort that the SADEs and the sisters considered her a valuable tool for Naiad’s technological uplift.
However, after several hours of discussions, that warm, fuzzy feeling dissipated.
“There are too many projects on the table,” Lisa objected.
“It’s merely a matter of prioritization,” Juno said soothingly.
“You need to step back from the minutiae, Lisa,” Samuel advised.
“Samuel’s correct, Lisa,” Tocknicka added. “In this meeting, you should be listening to understand the scope of our future work. Don’t get involved in the details.”
“Fine,” Lisa grumped. “I’ll sit here like a useless human.”
To Lisa’s surprise, the sisters howled their amusement, and she glared at them.
“Our apologies, Lisa,” Juno quickly said. “We took your words to be a jest. You’ve an important role to play in the projects. It just wasn’t incumbent on you to participate until right now.”
“Then you’re ready to tell me the first project you’ve chosen,” Lisa said hopefully. She’d had little to say, and her mind was spinning from trying to absorb the rapid discussions of the SADEs and the sisters.
“That’s the challenge, Lisa,” Tocknicka said. “We disagree.”
“I gathered that from the most recent images,” Lisa said, twirling a downturned finger to indicate the holo-vid displays that had appeared on the SADEs’ palms. “It’s between the comm stations and the Naiad landing dome.”
“Yes,” Samuel said. “We can construct the comm stations without interfering with Naiad’s general operations, but that’s not the same situation for the travelers’ dome.”
“Walk me through the dome’s construction again,” Lisa requested. “I don’t want the details. I want to hear the construction challenges.”
“From our end, Lisa, there are few problems,” Tocknicka replied, and his holo-vid displayed the Triton travelers’ dome in the Pyrean system. “Essentially, we’d replace the present landing pad with our dome, which would make the Naiad shuttles obsolete.”
“How would Naiads get to and from the station?” Lisa asked. “The Dominance had a single traveler. I understand that’s all the Beta Two sisters received.”
“The Emergence has a full complement of travelers,” Juno said proudly. “At the pace that our ships can deliver passengers to and from the station, one traveler can replace three of your shuttles.”
“But, while you’re constructing the dome, passengers would be forced to use the engineering bay to move to and from your ships,” Lisa pointed out.
Samuel held up a finger, and Lisa eyed it for a moment. Then she got the message. “Construction headache number one,” she said, nodding her head. “Can we build the dome in tandem with present shuttle operations?” she asked.
“Negative,” a sister replied. “From the first cycle, it must be one or the other.”
“Here’s what I propose,” Samuel said, knowing the Naiads’ penchant for maintaining their routines. He used the table’s holo-vid to produce a larger image of the Naiad landing pad, which the carrier’s controller delivered.
Standing, Samuel approached the display, and Lisa followed him. “This is the central shuttle tube,” he said. “We could shut down access to this one. In the interim, we substitute a traveler at the engineering bay if there was a passenger overload.”
“What’s the purpose?” Lisa queried.
“We build a temporary lift with a gangway for our traveler,” a sister exclaimed.
“Precisely,” Samuel affirmed, delivering the sister a generous smile.
“Then this lift would deliver passengers to and fro within pressurized environments. No suits,” Lisa summarized, staring at her audience.
“Yes,” Samuel affirmed.
“I can definitely sell that,” Lisa replied, with a satisfied smile. “If you could do one, then you could do the others,” she added.
“That’s Samuel’s plan,” Tocknicka said. “Why are you frowning?”
“You’re about to make the Naiad shuttles obsolete,” Lisa mused. “Although, I think they’re nearing end of life.”
Samuel connected to comtech and checked the construction dates. “Four of them should have been replaced nearly a decade ago. The other three are due soon,” he said.
Lisa eyed Samuel briefly. The swiftness with which a SADE could assimilate information and the generous manner in which the data was shared made the race extremely valuable.
“Continue, Lisa,” Juno prompted.
“I had two thoughts,” Lisa said. “The cost of replacing Naiad’s shuttles will be enormous. The council might well want to invest those credits in travelers and a dome.”
“And your second thought?” a sister prompted.
“I was wondering if you could use the shuttles for the comm stations,” Lisa said.
Samuel supplied a link to Tocknicka and the sisters. It led them to comtech servers and the construction plans for the shuttles.
Quickly, the shuttles’ materials were analyzed and compared to the requirements for a Naiad quantum-coupled comm station.
“A good amount of the shuttle parts could be repurposed. The hulls would be especially useful. Those are hardened metals and are needed for the stations’ shells,” Tocknicka pronounced.
“The council would have to approve the substitution of the travelers for the shuttles,” Samuel pointed out.
