Above and Beyond, page 30
‘Thank you for that paradox.’
He gave a mocking smile. He had so many smiles, so many nuances of expression. But all were bright, and most were reminiscent of a beast baring its fangs. He opened his mouth to reply but hesitated, tilting his head. Listening.
‘And upon that startling revelation this conversation is concluded – our final guest has arrived.’
I followed his gaze to the door.
Nothing happened.
‘I have exceptional hearing. Wait just a moment and–’
It slid open. Rile entered, one eye over his shoulder.
‘It’s getting worse out there,’ he said. ‘We should be gone. Where is she?’
Uli jerked his thumb to the corner. Rile turned, stiffening as he caught sight of Shard’s face. He advanced upon her, then bent down, hamstrings resting on his calves.
‘Lucille?’
She did not respond. Did not even register his presence.
He frowned, glancing at Uli, who offered no comment, before turning his gaze on me.
‘What happened to her?’
‘I don’t know. I think it’s self-inflicted. Perhaps to disguise her appearance?’
‘Why won’t she speak?’
‘…She lost someone.’
‘Hmm,’ he grunted, not fully convinced. I could understand why, given her character. It was easier to assume she was victim of a narcotic or witchcraft. I might have thought so too, if I had not witnessed her disintegrate before me.
Rile rose, turning to Uli.
‘We will take her. It’s dark enough now for the Aenigma to slip away. Then I can–’
‘No.’
He frowned, turning his gaze upon me.
‘You cannot just take her,’ I said. ‘Not yet. She has committed… She needs to be… There must be consequences. Plient is dead, and…’
I trailed off, withering beneath his stare. He did not look angry, not yet. Puzzled was closer.
‘Scribe Simlex,’ he said, ‘I am grateful you found my sister, and at some point I will find a means of repaying you. But she is leaving. Now. That is all.’
‘And what will happen to her?’ I asked. ‘Do you intend to nurse her back to health? Offer her a new life?’
‘She will be taken care of.’
His tone was neutral, though behind his back Uli was miming a noose being strung about his neck, pulling it taut with one hand even as his eyes rolled back in his head.
Rile’s head snapped round, perhaps following my gaze, to find the aeldari nodding along sagely, arms folded as he reclined against a worktop.
‘Rile is right,’ Uli purred, without a hint of insincerity. ‘You should return the flight commander to her family. They have her best interests at heart.’
‘This does not concern you,’ Rile warned, glaring at him before turning back to me. ‘Simlex, you are smart enough to know you cannot stop me. I owe you for finding her and would prefer to leave you alive and unharmed. But I will do what is necessary.’
‘I concede you could kill me. But you might wish to consider the consequences. I have captured your likeness. Both of you. And, thanks to Esec’s work on the Feed, it would not be difficult to transmit those picts across half the continent. You do not seem to want your presence here known. I could change that.’
He stared at me, perhaps debating whether I was bluffing. I wasn’t sure myself. I did have his likeness, but whether I could access Esec’s Feed was a separate question.
‘Very well, propagandist, what do you suggest?’ Rile asked, gesturing to the crumpled Shard. ‘We leave the matter to whatever authority is left on this planet? Allow my catatonic sister to be court-martialled and executed?’
I hesitated, my gaze shifting between them.
‘I don’t–’
‘Oh, just shoot him and be done,’ Uli said. ‘Or leave her, I don’t care. But we have dallied too long.’
‘He’s right,’ Rile said, taking a step towards me. He had yet to draw a weapon, though I doubted he needed one to kill me. Perhaps sensing his intent, Iwazar rushed to my side, offering a warning hiss. ‘Last chance.’
‘You don’t understand. The aeldari told me I had to tell the truth. But what if that is the manipulation? What if I keep quiet about her fate and cause irreparable harm? I don’t know… I don’t know what is right.’
Rile slowed, sighing. ‘Do you know what Tobia would say?’
‘He would say I should impose my will upon the aeldari. Were he not currently comatose.’
‘He is right, though. To beat them one must–’
‘They can’t be beaten.’
Her voice was barely a whisper. But we turned as one to see Shard still huddled by the bisected recon plane. Her gaze upon the floor.
Rile stepped closer. ‘Lucille, they–’
‘We cannot win. It is like punching air. Or locking blades with starlight. They move too fast. Disappear at will. You didn’t see them in the tunnels beneath Edbar. One plane held an army in a space where no human pilot could manoeuvre. I thought I was the best. Once,’ she murmured. ‘But I never had a chance. These aren’t orks you can outthink, or traitors who can be outfought. They know the outcome before they engage. We have no hope against them.’
She raised her head, meeting Rile’s gaze, her eyes empty, her fires long smothered by despair.
‘By Isha, you humans are pathetic,’ Uli said, still leaning against the counter, and currently inspecting his fingernails. Rile turned, glaring at him, but the aeldari shrugged.
‘What?’ he said. ‘Cesh has won without even trying. Look what he did to one of your best and brightest. Vanish at will? Manoeuvre through impossible spaces? Do you hear yourself?’
‘I saw it myself,’ I said. ‘In the tunnels beneath Edbar, Cesh held back an–’
‘Did you?’ Uli asked. ‘Or did you see concealed weapons platforms taking out a score of your troops? Honestly, primitive as you are, you have cobbled together passable weaponry, lascannons and multi-lasers and so on. You think my people struggle to put on a light show? I would wager you could never have caught Cesh in those tunnels, because he was never there. You were chasing shadows. And as for disappearing? It’s nothing more than a holofield. Like your little picts, the image of the aircraft is broken and distorted and replicated. It doesn’t vanish, you just cannot get a fix upon its real location.’
He stared at Shard. She stared back, though I could not read her face.
‘You weren’t there,’ she said. ‘Why should I believe you?’
‘Why do you believe Cesh?’
‘He has a point,’ Rile said. ‘I have some familiarity with the aeldari methods and technology. Holofields are their standard defence, but there are means to circumvent them. Or mitigate them, at least.’
Shard turned to him. ‘Do you have such a solution concealed in your greatcoat?’
‘No.’
‘Then he remains untouchable,’ she said, glaring at her brother. ‘Whether sorcery or science, if I cannot see where he is, I cannot hit him. He might as well be invisible.’
A slight edge had crept back into her voice.
‘Well, not invisible,’ I said. ‘There is a flicker amidst the distortion. Little more than a silhouette, but–’
She rounded on me. ‘Are you a fighter ace? You think your vision as acute as mine? It is impossible.’
There was more than an edge now.
‘I was on the ground when Cesh struck,’ I said. ‘Twice in fact. I could see the whole battlefield. I saw him… Or perhaps Iwazar did.’
As one, we turned to the seer-skull.
‘That?’ she said, incredulous. ‘You expect me to believe a barely functional rust bucket was able to see through the deception?’
‘After Plient repaired it? Yes.’
At the mention of his name, she stiffened. Retreated, the light dying in her eyes. She was fading, but I remembered what Plient had said, right after the fighting pit when she struck me down.
Sometimes she needed a target.
‘Iwazar, play back Cesh’s second attack. Start at the midpoint.’
An image materialised of Deighton’s sky, awash with light and explosions. I watched the colours cascade, flowing like oil on water. All were intent on the spectacle, even Shard rising to her feet.
And there it was.
‘Freeze playback,’ I murmured, pointing to the hololith. ‘See? There.’
Rile and Shard exchanged glances.
‘What are you talking about?’
‘It’s there!’ I said, pointing to the silhouette. ‘That grey shape? The pointed nose? You can even see the beginnings of a weapon discharge!’
Shard rolled her eyes, turning away. Rile looked to me, concern flashing across his face.
‘I see nothing,’ he said.
‘But it’s there!’ I repeated, looking at Uli, who was still examining his nails.
‘Hmm?’ He frowned, raising his head. ‘I’m afraid I must agree with the siblings. I see nothing. Though, based on the convergence of colours, you have picked roughly the right spot.’
‘But I can see it.’
‘Can you?’ Uli said. ‘Or is your connection to this device more complex than you realised?’
I followed his gaze to Iwazar, patiently awaiting its next command. None of them could see it. Maybe that was a limitation of the projector. Maybe it could not accurately reproduce the image captured, even if it could see it.
‘Continue playback. Half-speed.’
The battle rolled on, the sky a storm of light and flame.
‘Freeze. There!’ I said, glancing to each in turn.
All three shook their heads. But I saw Shard was staring at the image, squinting as she studied the display.
‘Where the magenta meets the cyan?’ she asked.
‘No. Lower. This ripple.’
‘Show me another.’
The vid spun forward, ceasing only when the ship rematerialised.
‘There?’ she asked again, pointing before I could speak.
‘Almost.’ I moved her finger a shade. ‘Here.’
She stared a moment more then turned, making for the shell of the recon plane, peeling open the hull and withdrawing the canister within. She staggered slightly under the weight, but tore it open, unveiling reams of film.
‘Here,’ she demanded. ‘Where is it?’
I looked at the film. ‘I didn’t capture that image. I can’t–’
‘Then get this thing’ – she nodded to Iwazar – ‘to project it on top. Extrapolate.’
‘I don’t think–’
But I saw her face. Scarred, harrowed, eyes sunken. She was barely holding it together, on the cusp of falling apart. But something smouldered in her eyes. Not fire, but perhaps the embers, or the first spark of a blaze.
Because she just might have found a way to hit back.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Reels of film lay spread about the workshop, Shard at its centre like a spider in a web, Iwazar beside her. She kept stuffing handfuls into the device, to be promptly spat out again. It could not amend the film, for the pict-cam on the recon plane had been unable to fully register Cesh’s aircraft. But there was an impression there, a hint through which it could extrapolate the vessel’s flight.
Maybe.
It was impossible to know for sure, but the seer-skull layered holo-images over the film, and with my assistance Shard marked in the aircraft with a length of charcoal, before cutting out the individual frames and laying them around her, as though conducting a bizarre ritual. At first I’d been hopeful, imagining that she’d found some pattern to the movements. But increasingly her work seemed that of a madwoman, the ritual’s purpose only to stave off another breakdown.
I was not the only one who thought it, even if I refused to voice it.
‘It would seem the sun has set,’ Uli murmured, peering through the darkened window. ‘Yet I find myself here.’
‘We are secure enough,’ Rile replied, not looking up. ‘A few minutes more matters little.’
‘You said that three and a half hours ago. Back when picture time was a novelty. But I am no longer amused. I grow bored. And my people do not do well with boredom.’
‘Would you prefer to wait outside? Or in our ship?’
‘Would that I could fly the damn thing without you disengaging the gene-lock,’ he muttered. ‘It’s almost as though Atenbach does not trust me.’
‘Your first meeting was an attempt to assassinate him.’
‘Details,’ Uli said, peering through the gloom. ‘Though I must say, it seems to be getting more exciting out there. You humans do so love fire. Only discovered it a few mega-annum ago, and you just cannot move on.’
‘Are they digging firepits?’ I asked.
‘No. More that they are gathering to discuss something. There are lots of torches. And a rather impassioned speech, even if the orator is dressed like a beggar.’
He reached into his cloak, his rifle unfolding as it cleared the fabric. Seeing it that close, I’m not sure that was the correct term for what happened. It was almost as though the barrel grew from its stock, like a claw being unsheathed. The whole thing had an unsettling organic quality.
‘What are you doing?’ I said as he took aim.
‘Merely aligning the sight so I could read this man’s lips and determine… Oh dear.’
‘What?’
‘We’re done,’ he said, turning to Rile, his weapon collapsing back into his cloak. ‘The impromptu rally is about to become an incident. And, given your people’s predisposition towards murdering mine, I’d prefer to be long gone before the shooting starts.’
Rile shifted his gaze to the window. ‘What’s happening?’
‘Apparently whoever was charged with overseeing this little conquest has not been doing a good job. Something about slaying the sacred mamutida? Blotting out the Light of Truth? It doesn’t matter, war is returning.’
‘We could secure this facility. Lock down until–’
‘There are tanks parked out there. How secure will it be once they start firing?’
‘You think going out there now is better? When–’
‘Bastard! That sneaky, pointy-eared bastard!’
Shard spat the words, the charcoal scrabbling across the parchment before being tossed aside. Her head snapped up, eyes aflame.
‘He’s doing the same damn manoeuvres over and over. Feint, redeploy, attack, repeat. I could do that if I had a plane that could pivot on a needle. See? There! He swoops in, banks, rolls under, pops out and takes the shot. Then just falls away and does it again. Rinse and repeat. Doesn’t even respect us enough to vary his game! Look!’
She gestured to the parchment, now inscribed with crude sketches of planes. Rile hesitated, glancing from her to me.
‘Be that as it may, I don’t think–’
‘But I can beat him! Don’t you see it? It’s not just random colours and light. There is a pattern, tied to his acceleration! Magenta, cyan, scarlet. There! Right before the yellow! Right before the damn yellow! That’s when he strikes, when the shades are like sunset, when the deceleration makes the shot just a little easier. I see it now! I can beat him!’
She thrust the scrawling into our collective faces, triumphant, her fingers stained black by her labour. Her eyes were wide and bright, and she seemed to have forgotten how to blink.
Silence. Uli was the one who broke it.
‘Right. Well, she has clearly gone insane, so I am going to leave and hopefully not die. Rile, if you subsequently make it back to the Aenigma, we can proceed from there.’
‘I’m not insane! I found the–’
She trailed off, frowning at Uli, as though seeing him for the first time.
‘Why is there a xenos here?’
‘Uli,’ Rile replied. ‘You remember him? You met following the mission you flew on Shohi?’
‘I remember the mission you coerced me into flying on Shohi,’ she said softly, her eyes hard. ‘Things took a turn after that.’
‘I know. And I am sorry. I should have made greater effort with the debrief. And I should have followed up on Esec. That damn drone he tried to smuggle onto the ship. I knew then that there was something odd about–’
‘I don’t care about that! I need to face Cesh! Don’t you get it? Last time… Plient died. Cesh killed him. I can’t let him get away with it! I can’t just let him die for nothing.’
Her voice almost broke, only held together with bile, anger sustaining her. It kept it simple, kept her from confronting what she had done.
Rile took a step towards her, arm outstretched. ‘Lucille. I… You can’t face anyone in this state. When did you last sleep?’
‘Or wash?’ Uli added.
‘Be silent!’ Rile thundered, glaring at him before turning back to Shard, his voice once more calm as the void.
‘Sister, I promise that you can have a chance at revenge. But not yet. You’re too close to see it. You must trust me.’
She gave a spluttering laugh, bordering on hysteria. ‘Trust you? When have you ever trusted me, even when you turn up with half a story begging me for help?’
‘That is not the topic under discussion,’ Rile warned, glancing briefly to me. ‘Come now, you know I speak the truth. You’re not ready. Perhaps tomorrow. Perhaps longer. But not now.’
She glared at him, lip twisted in a snarl. At some point her rant had opened one of her scars, because blood was oozing down her cheek.
Then she sighed. Sagged, her head bowing, her gaze resting on the floor.
