Damia's Children Part 11

Thian seated himself comfortably, ready to 'path messages but the captain continued to pace the length of the conference table.

'We have first established that there are no emissions of any s.p.a.ce drive known to exist, human, 'Dini or Hive,' he said.

That was a surprise and Thian restrained his amus.e.m.e.nt. No glory at all to grab. And no lives to be wasted in an attack to the death.

But he maintained an alert interest as the captain continued.

'It would appear to be a derelict of some sort.

'An unusually large derelict,' the com officer said softly, evidently not comfortable with what she'd seen on the sensors.

'That's a pity,' Thian said, since that was their feeling. Odd how brave people could feel after an emergency had pa.s.sed.

The captain flicked one heavy eyebrow in dismissal. 'If our readings are correct. And I'd like you to check with the 'Dinis on this. There's been enough time for them to have a.n.a.lyzed the same readings.

Captain Pir agreed with As.h.i.+ant but Captain Spktm, who was the senior naval commander, was not totally convinced.

'It says that the lack of emissions is not conclusive evidence that this is a derelict. It advises great caution.' 'Hmmm.' As.h.i.+ant paced one more length. 'The KLTS has had more contact with Hive vessels than anyone else in this squadron. Hmmm.' 'It wants to send a probe.' 'Of course,' and As.h.i.+ant paused, fingers over the terminal station. 'Theirs or ours?' Thian enquired and replied that the 'Dinis believed human probes to be more efficient. Thian did not add the 'Dini qualification that human probes were more efficient because they employed gadgets to do what personal observations could do better.

The 'Dinis were not precisely calling humans cowards, but certainly overcautious.

'So they approve of our hardware, huh? Well, they're right as well as honest,' As.h.i.+ant replied and gave the necessary orders for a probe. 'It'll be at least twenty-three hours before it gets there and starts reporting. Carry on, gentlemen, and rejoin me at 0800 tomorrow.

A moment, if you will, Thian.' 'Captain?' As.h.i.+ant nodded for him to keep his seat as the others filed out.

'I read somewhere that your family can identify Hive materials by the ... ah ... sound of them?' As this question wasn't at all what Thian had expected, he laughed as much in relief as surprise.

'That's true enough, sir. On Deneb they're still turning up buried pieces of the first scout vessels.

There's a naval research facility investigating the composition of the material. I was on only one successful expedition with my cousins: we got an interior panel about,' he encompa.s.sed the size with his hands, 'this big. It did give off a distinctive emanation, I guess you'd say Family called it a sting-pzzt. Other sensitives agree.' He shrugged, searching for another way of describing the sensation. 'It comes across as an actinic smell in the back of your throat, a sharp pinch in your nasal pa.s.sages and an unpleasant smell.' As.h.i.+ant grunted.

'But you would know it?' 'Anywhere, sir.' Thian waited, respectfully silent while the captain continued to ruminate. He made no attempt to plumb those thoughts.

'A probe can bring back only mechanical information, Thian,' As.h.i.+ant said at length and suddenly Thian knew what he might be asked to do.

He couldn't help but react and the captain caught his grin.

'Yes, Thian?' He raised his eyebrows, expecting an answer.

'I'd heard, Captain . . . well, there's some s.p.a.ceflot about Talents grabbing all the glory...

'Oh, that,' and a gesture dismissed the rumour.

'As you're already aware, I am under orders not to put you at risk - which is where glory is usually grabbed - but I will ask how far you can propel yourself in a capsule.' 'To the derelict-planetoid-whatever ?' The captain held up his hand, 'But well outside the known range of Hive weaponry ... with which our allies are so familiar.' 'If it would help, sir, I'm willing.' 'I'm just thinking aloud, Thian. Wanted to get the straight of that ... ah ... trick. You are of great a.s.sistance to us in many other capacities.' 'I appreciate that, Captain. In the event such a service is required, it is entirely within my scope i6o i6i of abilities and the position I was asked to fill .

if that's what's bothering you.' 'Thank you, Thian. That's all now, I think, until we've the probe report. d.a.m.ned thing could be just lying doggo.' 'That isn't what Senior Captain Spktm believes.' 'Oh?' 'But it is adamant about approaching with great caution. Even Hiver wrecks have had nasty surprises for boarding parties.' 'So I'd read in those exhaustive 'Dini reports they furnished us. You'll be informed when the probe starts transmitting.' 'Aye, sir 'And Thian, I wouldn't let the s.p.a.ceflot bother you. Nerves talking, not common sense. We're still on yellow alert, of course, but some of the urgency has dissipated now we know the thing's inactive.' 'Thank you, sir.' As Thian left the ready room, he wondered if he had missed an opportunity to mention Malice.

Though he hadn't heard any barbs from that direction since the blip had come up. Hopefully too occupied with more urgent duties. The crew of the Vadim were busy preparing for action. He was nearly at his quarters when another pod drill was called by the hooting of the siren.

With a grunt, he 'ported himself to his designated escape pod and counted in the nine others a.s.signed to it. By now he knew all of them well enough to have 'saved' them no matter where they were on the Vadim should the abandon s.h.i.+p order be given. He wondered if any of them knew of these orders but all he ever sensed was annoyance that their current task had once again been interrupted by a geedee drill.

A circ.u.mnavigation by the probe produced very interesting results.

The derelict was undeniably Hive designed which excited the 'Dinis who were generous in their rect.i.tude.

'Captain Spktm says it's bigger than any they've encountered, with certain design features that are new and it's very glad the vessel's non-functional,' Thian reported to the specialists a.s.sembled in the ready room.

'Measurements indicate it's a third again as large as previously encountered vessels,' Commander Vandermeer said. 'A small planet!' 'Readings indicate the s.h.i.+p was bombarded with intense heat. Radiation is still present as well as some very odd traces of other elements that are being spectra-a.n.a.lysed. There's no known weapon that devastating, or one that could have left such traces.' 'Something blew two-thirds of that s.h.i.+p to h.e.l.l in gone.' Then Vandermeer shrugged. 'And it's nothing the 'Dinis have ever encountered. Nor us.' 'I'd hate to meet what has that kind of fire-power,' As.h.i.+ant said.

'That's precisely Captain Spktm's sentiment,' Thian reported and then grinned. 'It would like whoever it was to be on our side.' As.h.i.+ant laughed out loud and there were other smiles about the table.

'I didn't know the wee ...

ahem ... our allies had a sense of humour.' 'They do, sir, believe me!' As.h.i.+ant steepled his fingers, rubbing the end of his nose, before he laced his fingers together and leaned forward on his elbows.

'Gentlemen, this artefact requires our earnest investigation.

First time there've been big enough pieces to work with, I understand.' He cast a sly sideways glance at Thian, quirking one of his eloquent eyebrows. 'Do our allies agree?' He turned to Thian.

'Indeed, sir, they're forming a volunteer squad to investigate.

Do we wish to send representatives?' Several hands immediately went up.

'Thank you, gentlemen. I will want volunteers from communications, engineering, mechanical, security. Mr Lyon has to be included as interpreter.

Vandermeer cleared her throat. 'Sir, I believe that won't be necessary now.' 'Yes, Ailsah, I know you've become quite fluent in 'Dini but Mr Lyon goes in several capacities. How soon are the 'Dinis a.s.sembling, mister?' Thian queried Spktm. 'Right now. They're asking for a pre-boarding conference with our teams.

They are appointing fifteen specialists from each of their s.h.i.+ps: we should supply as many from ours.

This will be a big undertaking.' 'It's also an immense s.h.i.+p, even with two-thirds of it blown away,' As.h.i.+ant interposed.

'Captain Spktm strongly recommends that we halt at forty spatials to be sure there is no reaction to our presence.' 'That's well beyond maximum Hive weapon range,' As.h.i.+ant said, surprised.

'Beyond range of known Hive weapons. Captain Spktm reminds you that this is a new, unknown design.' 'But it's dead.

'Captain Spktm may be overcautious, sir, but...' Thian wasn't sure how to phrase the exact wording of the 'Dini's statement.

'Yes, yes, I appreciate that this is an unknown quant.i.ty but the probe read no life signs and no viable life-support systems working.' 'As far as the probe could tell.' Thian kept his voice neutral, being merely an intermediary but he could sense that Spktm's cautionaries were not being well received by the Vadim's officers.

'Since Captain Spktm is around to caution us, we will not be rash,' As.h.i.+ant said before turning to the security officer. 'Strange that they're so cautious on an approach course when they're quite willing to suicide to destroy a Hiver. whatever!

Commander Vandermeer, you'll lead the human contingent. Pick a boarding party of fifteen, with all necessary specialists represented.

Declan, get me channels through to Captain Smelkoff, Sutra and Ches.e.m.e.n. They're to send teams, too. We won't be close enough to launch the shuttles for another six hours even at our present speed.

That gives us plenty of time for. an interspecies, inters.h.i.+p conference.

'Indeed, sir,' Vandermeer said, well pleased with her a.s.signment but, as her glance slid over him, he caught a brief flare of resentment from the woman.

However, it didn't have the tone of Malice: she simply did not like having to be responsible for a civilian.

Briskly she gave orders, picking from the Va dim's crew and then accessing the other s.h.i.+ps to discover whom they were sending.

Thian had to sit heavily on an increasing excitement as he listened to Vandermeer with growing respect. She ordered the big shuttle to be ready for launch in six hours. Full radiation suits must be put on board, full medical and emergency packs. From communications, she wanted additional printout of all the probe's data for the briefing. All officers were to be armed with the new stunners, developed from the one hand-weapon the 'Dinis had found effective against Hive drone warriors. The boarding party was to join her in shuttle bay in exactly one hour from now, ready to go.

'Have you been issued any ex-vehicular gear, Mr Lyon?' she asked, finally turning to him.

'No, ma' am.' 'Then get some. With that she rose from the table and strode out of the ready room.

'Well, you heard her,' As.h.i.+ant said, smiling.

'I also heard you say that I'm going along in several capacities, sir. which?' 'Interpreter, observer, and. . . lastly, but most important, the Talent to whip someone out of trouble if necessary.' Thian got himself a full-radiation suit, and the requisite stunner which Lieutenant Sedallia handed him with a supercilious expression on his face.

'I don't imagine you've needed to handle a weapon before...

'On the contrary, I've hunted for the family table since I was old enough to pull the trigger of a rifle.' At the surprised look, Thian added. 'And we always ate well.' He sighted along the thick barrel.

'But this is a spread weapon anyway. I certainly ought to be able to hit a shuttle-bay door with this.' He slapped it back into its clip and, with a nod to the ratings handing out equipment, left. He could 'hear' the comments and most were complimentary.

Sedallia wasn't that popular.

Thian was prompt at the intergroup meeting, held in the ready room, with screens linking the six s.h.i.+ps of the squadron. As.h.i.+ant introduced Commander Vandermeer as the human leader and she quite ably greeted her 'Dini counterpart. Thian kept his expression neutral but he was rather pleased with his student Her sentences were, of course, brief and there were pauses while she accessed words from her vocabulary but PIr, the leader of the 'Dini boarding parties, understood her perfectly.

The 'Dini showed her a chart of the vessel and identified certain of the remaining portions as the part of the main propulsion unit, fuel storage, resting cubicles, nesting and work quarters. The Queens' accommodations had been blown away for they were usually in the centre: some peripheral weapons were still in place as well as several a.r.s.enals and storage areas. Plr then drew longitudinal lines, separating the wreck into six sections and a.s.signed a boarding team to each.

Vandermeer agreed with the a.s.signments even when PIr preempted the sector holding the remaining weapons.

'It's more familiar to them than any of us,' she said to her own group.

The meeting was concluded and final preparations made which, Vandermeer said, would begin with a good high-protein meal.

'Leviathan,' Thian murmured more to himself than Lieutenant Ridvan Auster-Kiely sitting beside him.

'Say what?' Ridvan asked, bending his ear towards Thian.

'That thing is not just big, it's a Leviathan,' he repeated, struggling not to hunch his shoulders away from the immensity of the damaged s.p.a.ce vessel.

Thian remembered that 'Leviathan' was what his grandmother had called the Hive s.h.i.+p that had been destroyed beyond Deneb over forty years before.

The shuttle was obediently waiting at the forty spatials to see if there was any reaction from the vessel. The 'Dinis had said that a Hive s.h.i.+p would automatically open fire on anything that approached even though it was out of range.

'What's a Leviathan?' 'Something as big as this.' 'This is not the time to be funny.' 'The best time.' 'Be serious, Thian. Say, couldn't it be a planetoid?

I mean, it could have been hollowed out.. 'And then metal coated and levels dug out?' Thian chuckled. 'No, Ridvan, it's a s.h.i.+p and not as big as say, Callisto, either.' 'That doesn't rea.s.sure me.' Ridvan was nervous and didn't bother to hide it.

Thian was neither nervous nor scared and wondered if this was wrong. Excitement was the prevailing sentiment within the shuttle, certainly. He knew his senses were all heightened and he wondered that he didn't feel - even through the vacuum of s.p.a.ce - the sting-pzzt of proximity to a Hive artefact.

No-one else in this boarding party had ever been so close to a Hive artefact. Admittedly, he had only helped dig up a panel on Deneb, exciting enough in itself when you're only ten, and help sling it into the 'copter scoop. That still doesn't make you an expert, he told himself firmly They waited, getting bored with the view of what Thian began to describe as a semi- demi- hemisphere.

The northern pole was intact all around to about the tenth lat.i.tude in the east where damage began.

The western hemisphere extended almost to a tropic of Cancer in places but the southern pole cap had been totally blown away. As if something, incredibly mammoth, had taken a ma.s.sive bite out of the Hive sphere, leaving pits, pith and intestines behind.

Finally the 'Dinis judged it safe to approach: slowly but surely.

Their shuttle, the one from the Beijing, and one 'Dini angled to starboard, closed on the wreck. The third human shuttle followed at a discreet distance. They pa.s.sed around the outer skin of the wreck and immediately Thian was conscious - even inside the shuttle - of the sting-pzzt effect of Hive metal on Talented perceptions. He ran his tongue around his mouth but the actinic taste was in the back of his mouth, far stronger than it had been when he was in direct contact with the Hive panel. Was it because this was a newer construction? Louder or more potent in its emanations? He wished he could contact his grandmother or grandfather right now.

i68 69 The captains had decided to wait until there were concrete details to report before publicizing this expedition: Thian had had to report that the discovery of the s.h.i.+p had caused wide panic on every inhabited world. So he was as glad not to have to add to it. Nor to say anything about his partic.i.p.ation in further close investigations.

But should he report to Commander Vandermeer the intensity of the Hive aura? Captain As.h.i.+ant had known of it. Such information was not really of use, he thought, except that it verified the origin of the s.h.i.+p. As if there was much doubt about that.

The shuttle wended its way through immense shards of outer hulls, inner skins, deck levels, past structural members as thick as the Vadim. Big as that star-cla.s.s s.h.i.+p was, she, and a hundred of her sister s.h.i.+ps, could have docked in a quadrant of this one.

Everyone reacted as the shuttle's exterior lights began to illuminate details of the innards they were traversing.

'Storage area?' one of the engineers suggested, pointing to odd-shaped containers partially fused against bulkheads. They pa.s.sed much smaller divisions the size of the Vadim's adequately large shuttle bay. Bent tubing several metres across dangled pendulously into emptiness.

On the forward screen, they saw the 'Dini shuttle veer to port, heading towards its appointed landing spot. Thian, being nearest the porthole, looked back as long as he could, to see the 'Dini disembarking in their s.p.a.ce gear.

Then all too soon their shuttle landed on its designated site.

Helmets clicking into place were the only sounds. Then they were on suit air.

'Set your watches, gentlemen,' Commander Vandermeer said, her voice m.u.f.fled on the intercom, 'you have exactly three hours and twenty minutes' oxygen.

'I thought we had four hours' air, sir?' AusterKiely said.

'We do, but for practical purposes we'll all a.s.semble back here in three hours and twenty minutes.

Clear?' 'Yes, sir.' Someone in the group let out a snide bark of a laugh which Vandermeer instantly silenced.

'Enough of that! Let's move out. Mertz, Jimenez, Kaldi, go as far up as you can in this segment, then work down. Sedallia, see if those mangled coils might be drive components. Kes, you go with Sedallia. All of you: call out if you spot something one of the specialists should examine. Take all the snaps you can but remember to light 'em. It's darker in here than the devil's belly.' She went on a.s.signing search areas. 'Remember to keep one hand for yourself and don't drift off. We can't waste time hauling you back in from outer s.p.a.ce. Lyon, you stick on this level with Kiely. There seem to be undamaged compartments along this corridor. Let's move it.

As soon as the others had dispersed in their appointed directions, Kiely pulled Thian close enough for them to touch helmets and Thian could see the furious expression on the lieutenant's face. He resented being treated like a liability.

Thian grinned back at him, gesturing towards the dark interior and mentally trying to soothe the young man. He found that the sting-pzzt dampened his Talent, m.u.f.fled it, so he gave up trying to project.

He started forward, his boots locking on the plates of the deck so that each step required effort. Then he saw Kiely floating ahead of him, grabbing handholds where he could to propel himself forward, his helmet light illuminating the way. Thian lifted one foot free, grabbed hold of a solid spar and yanked the other boot loose and followed Kiely's aerial example.

Great heat had certainly seared and boiled any organic substances away, leaving only burst containers that had exploded and some that had apparently imploded. Depending on how long ago the catastrophe had occurred, some traces of the contained substances might be found for a.n.a.lysis. They could do that on their return to the shuttle. As he and Kiely made steady progress into the interior, Thian saw nothing very promising, except that the Hive had been transporting an unimaginable amount of cargo or stores. For an hour, they poked, prodded, peered, squeezing carefully into compartments on either side of this broad but squat ceilinged avenue.

According to his understanding of Hive s.h.i.+p construction, this corridor might be just above the doubly s.h.i.+elded quarters where, traditionally, the Queens were sequestered, constantly laying the eggs that would be stored for use in setting up the next colony. But, look as hard as he could, he could find no access to the lower level. when he saw the first of the tubes, he wondered what function it had performed. Then he came upon a cl.u.s.ter and the sting-pzzt that had been constantly with him increased in intensity. That alone was unusual enough to make him call to Kiely to come back a moment.

'Whatcha find, Thian?' 'Don't know but here's a service door, or something, and - whaddya know, it opens,' and Thian was as surprised as Kiely when his jerk pulled the panel free and it slowly drifted out.

Thian pressed his foot against the upper half and it settled to the deck.

Kiely, floating above him, poked his head down the opening, the light narrowing as it pierced the blackness of the tunnel.