Exodus, page 35
Finn had been fascinated and disturbed by the sight of Terrik Papuan ever since they decelerated into orbit. The polar caps were huge; between them they covered two-thirds of the planet’s surface. They’d formed as a result of the nuclear winter that beset the planet in the aftermath of the Ultimax war. All that lay between them were the equatorial sea and several archipelagos. No animals lived there; the entire planetary fauna had died out in less than a year as the plants withered away from the drastic temperature inversion, and those that might’ve survived the cold were doomed by the permanent darkness as clouds obscured the sky for the first five millennia.
Now it was just the sea that supported life, though no one was sure where the algae came from. Best theory was a Celestial faction who had tried to reboot the terraforming process at some time during the Crucible Era. If true, they hadn’t succeeded. The algae coverage of the ocean’s surface was absolute, forming an unbroken crust two meters deep. It acted as a motion suppressor, flattening any waves that tried to rise amid the chaotic tidal forces exerted by the five moons.
The shuttle flew into daylight as the terminator swept over Breakerville. A sickly blue-green living carpet extended out to the horizon on either side of the little craft, managing to look more lifeless than the gray island ahead of them. Breakerville was a town of metal buildings stretching back a couple of kilometers from the shoreline. They were all single story, their panels welded or epoxied together in haphazard fashion. Staring at them in the wan dawn light, Finn realized that every one was made from curving sections of aerobrake bubbles that had been cut up and hauled onto land.
Where they’d been cut up was obvious. Pre-Ultimax, the island had been an underwater volcano that had been exposed by the sinking sea level, a gently sloped mound of basalt with deep clefts radiating out from a rounded summit. On the Breakerville side of the island, twenty clefts had been dug deeper and wider where they reached the water, producing regular inlets hundreds of meters long. Each of them had a series of giant arches curving over them, trackways for mobile gantry arms carrying heavy-duty cutting machines, and cranes that dangled truck-sized bucket cages.
Nine of the artificial inlets had aerobrake lifting bodies wedged into them. Their upper surfaces were in various stages of the dismantling process; from one that had a few holes cut into it to three that had been completely removed, exposing the peculiar chunks of Aktoru warship wreckage they’d brought down.
“Now I get it,” Ellie murmured beside him as she stared out of the little window.
Finn grinned in admiration. “Yeah, me too.”
They landed on a long runway above the town and taxied past a line of big cargo spaceplanes. Finn eyed their metalloceramic fuselages, worn and burn-pitted from too many de-orbit aerobrakes and not enough maintenance.
It was cold outside, barely above freezing. As he walked down the airstair, Finn wished he’d put his coat on. The dark flexible armor didn’t seem to retain much heat.
“What is that smell?” Ellie asked, wrinkling her nose up in dismay.
“A combination of brine and the algae,” Tabia said. “Get used to it. This ocean was left with a huge salt content after the water migrated to the glaciers. People are pretty sure the algae was genetically modified specifically for Terrik Papuan; it’d have to be to survive an ocean like this. And the sun’ll be up properly in an hour or so, which will heat the surface up, which makes the smell stronger.”
Davrux was waiting for them on the edge of their parking zone, a senior team boss from Wilson Reduction and Recover. He was almost as tall as a Celestial, wearing a grubby blue one-piece over his considerable bulk. His head didn’t seem to have a neck, with his chin and jowls emerging from the overall’s collar.
“Somebody’s been skipping their diet,” Ellie said under her breath as they walked over the gray flinty ground.
Finn couldn’t believe she’d said that, then realized…“Davrux is a Flexal. Everybody here is.”
“A what?”
“A Flexal. They’re Changelings. Breakerville is their town.”
“Oh. Crap. Sorry.” She blushed.
Davrux smiled down at the Lestari crew. “Wilson Reduction and Recover welcomes you to Breakerville.”
“Thanks, Davrux,” Tabia said.
“Good to see you again, Tabia,” the big Changeling replied. “We appreciate you choosing us again, even though this deal will probably bankrupt the company.”
“Us,” Tabia corrected. “It will bankrupt us, you’re skimming so much off the top.”
“Ha! You Travelers are all the same, exploiting us, squeezing the very blood and muscle from our veins to make profit. A miserable thirty percent of a value that never matches the assessor’s stupid estimate. Nothing changes.”
She grinned. “No, thank Asteria, nothing does.”
“So, you have a big one splashing down?”
“Yes. In about thirty minutes. Sixty thousand tons.”
He whistled in appreciation. “Nice.”
“Do you have the lodge ready for us?” Toše asked.
“Yes. It’s just above the Portishead inlet. The finest our company owns. All to yourselves, as agreed. I’ll take you.”
Finn was only mildly surprised when three globecabs rolled over from a nearby hangar. They were definitely the same kind that Santa Rosa used, just from forty years ago. Like the big spaceplanes, they’d been given the most rudimentary maintenance.
Miteris opened a cargo hatch at the back of the shuttle’s fuselage. Grssia and Ichika started unloading the team’s bags. Finn went for his coat.
“I want you off the ground in five minutes,” Toše told Miteris. “The shuttle is too vulnerable sitting here on the spaceport. We’ll call you down again when we’re finished here.”
“Roger that.”
* * *
—
The lodge was on a ridge above one of the inlet docks: a long building, most of which was a single room kitted out with ten beds and a circular dining table. There were three small washrooms at the back. Grssia opened one of her cases and took out a string of small sensor globes. Hand-sized remotes scampered out of the bag and chased off across the lodge’s floor like inquisitive chrome-shelled kittens.
She shook the globes. “I’ll get them placed.”
Davrux pursed his lips. “Remember, you’re not paranoid—”
“—if they really are out to get you,” Tabia finished. “Cards on the table, Davrux. There’s a ZPZ generator on board.”
“Sweet Asteria. You’re kidding.”
“Thankfully not.”
“Damn, I should have guessed you had something like this when Uzoma caved at thirty percent. Okay, this changes a few things. I’ll up our security detail.”
“I can handle our protection,” Toše said.
“I don’t doubt it, but this is for my team. That much money does strange things to people’s heads, even here. I don’t want my team in harm’s way. And we’ll need a decent escort when we transport your generator from the dock to the cargo spaceplane.”
“Locating and extracting the generator has absolute priority,” Tabia said. “I’m not going to quibble about the number the assessor gives us for the rest. You pay us the seventy percent and we leave with the generator.”
“Wilson Reduction and Recover does not break a deal.” He extended his hand.
Tabia shook it solemnly.
“There’s a high tide at dusk, in eleven hours,” Davrux said. “We’ll be able to berth the bubble then. I’ll collect you when our tugs are at the dock mouth.”
* * *
—
Ten hours later, Davrux arrived back at the lodge with the three globecabs.
“People with him,” Grssia said, her eyes hidden behind a visor band, feeding her the datastreams from the sensors she’d set up. “Asteria’s arse, they’re Silicates! Two of them.”
Toše immediately picked up a maser carbine, then opened a case of aero combat drones.
“Is that another type of Changeling?” Ellie asked Finn.
“No.” He couldn’t help the smile quirking his lips. He’d never imagined he’d see a Silicate. “They’re…”
“Damned,” Ichika said gloomily.
“Not damned. Altered. There are these Remnant Era eggs—”
“Alien,” Ichika insisted.
“Remnant or alien. No one knows.”
“They’re not alien,” Tabia said in irritation. “There are no aliens in the Centauri Cluster. Asteria’s Elohim made the Green Worlds from the barren stones orbiting each star. Every bounty we are blessed with has terrestrial ancestry.”
“Okay.” Finn coughed. “Well, anyway, these eggs transform a human body. They’re a clump of tightly wound crystalline fibers. When they touch a human, they start to unravel and sort of merge with your body to form an exoskin, which is basically armor.”
“Using your own flesh as its food to grow big enough to cover you completely.” Ichika shuddered. “Like the alien parasite it is.”
“Soldiers consider it a sanctification from Asteria,” Tabia said. “A Silicate becomes so much more than human. Even Celestials have respect for them.”
“They’re also fucking hard to kill,” Toše said, slotting additional power packs onto his belt. “Everyone stay behind me. Grssia, Ichika, flank positions, cover me.” He pulled his helmet on and opened the door.
Davrux climbed out of the lead globecab and put his arms out. “Easy, fella.”
“Silicates stay in the globecab.”
“Okay.” Davrux turned and made “stay calm” motions with his hands.
“Who are they, and why are they here?” Toše demanded.
“This is Dave, and—ah, Dave.”
“Is that a joke?”
“No. Look, given what Tabia told me is in that bubble, I figured you might want some backup.”
“Don’t need it.”
“Until you do. Look, I’ve hired extra security for the dock, but you guys are going to be vulnerable out here. I’m trying to help.”
“I don’t know you.”
“But Tabia does.”
“Tabia,” Toše called over his shoulder. “You know Dave and Dave?”
“No. Sorry, Davrux.”
“ ’S okay. At least talk to them, fella. There’s a deal to be made here; you have something they want.”
Toše hesitated for a beat. “I come to you. If anyone approaches the lodge, my colleagues will open fire.”
“Asteria! Sure, okay.” Davrux eyed one of the small drones that hovered overhead. “We don’t have any weapons.”
“Good.”
Finn couldn’t decide if he should put his helmet on or not. He peered through the half-open door, trying to see what was happening. Toše was standing beside Davrux, talking to the figures in the globecab. There was a lot of arm waving going on. Then Toše was walking back to the lodge.
“So?” Tabia asked.
“Maybe. Finn?”
“Er, yeah?”
“Can you connect to the town’s network?”
“Sure.” He put his hand over his patch, pressing down on the tiny contact bulb. “Okay, I have access. It’s not the most sophisticated.”
“Get into the Gonzalez Bank ledger and see when the Jarias payment was made.”
Finn summoned up the bank portal. The routines of the Breakerville network were a creaking patchwork. Logging into the bank—the only one in the settlement—took more time than he wanted, seconds instead of microseconds. “There’s a payment from Ynni Re-Claim to the Jarias account seventy-three days ago.”
Toše mulled that over. “Right, that fits.”
“Fits what?” Tabia asked.
“According to Davrux and the Daves, they were in the L’treta system when the Jarias contracted them as a security detail for their mission here. They did their job and guarded all the Aktoru tech that Ynni Re-Claim extracted from their wreckage. Apparently it was a batch of ship’s weaponry—some crazy powerful shit that was making Breakerville residents very nervous.”
“Did they find Q-shell distorts?” Tabia asked keenly.
“Maybe. Equipment was glitching all over town for no good reason. Everyone was very glad when the salvage was loaded onto a cargo spaceplane and flown up to Jarias. Everyone but Dave and Dave.”
“The bastards left them behind,” Tabia said.
“Yep.” He looked out of the open door at the globecabs. “And now who’s going to be stupid enough to give a pair of pissed-off Silicates a ride out of here in their starship? That’s the price they’re charging for assisting us.”
“So, my decision, then?” Tabia asked.
“Uzoma was pretty clear about the chain of command.”
“Do you want them?”
“Asteria, no. But…If that ship that attacked us did survive, there’s no help finer in a fight.”
“I don’t know, it’s a good story.”
“That’s why I got Finn to check. If they arrived here seventy-three days ago from the L’treta system, which is eight and a half light-years away, there’s no way they’re part of whatever mission is gunning for us.”
“Do they know we’re going straight back to Gondiar?”
“They know. They don’t care about our destination; they just want off here.”
“Understandable,” Finn said. He couldn’t imagine being stranded here: no animals, no plants, just an endless bleak vista of gray rock leading down to a sickly ocean. It was the complete opposite of Gondiar, with its thriving cities and lush landscape.
Tabia ignored him. “What do you think?”
“Silicates have honor, everyone knows that,” Toše said. “If we say yes, I’ll stick them on perimeter duty, just to be safe. Once the cargo spaceplane carrying the generator gets airborne, then they can join us in the shuttle and we fly up to Lestari. But—it’s your call.”
“Shit. Okay. I do like the idea of having them on our side. But you’re the one who’s going to tell them we don’t quite trust them enough to let them get close to the wreckage.”
For the first time, Finn saw Toše smile. “No problem.”
* * *
—
Ellie hadn’t quite known what to expect when they walked out to the globecabs. Finn’s talk about Silicates being some kind of bioparasite armor had left her thinking of a shell like a spacesuit’s radiation shielding. Instead, the figures who climbed out to talk to Toše were naked. Really naked. She could discern the quartz-like shell that covered their entire body, but its transparency took her completely by surprise. The exoskin had replaced every centimeter of their natural skin. Evening sunlight refracted off it in a dull prismatic shimmer, constantly fluctuating as they moved, but she could still see all the muscles, tendons, and blood vessels underneath. They were like living anatomical models. It was hugely disconcerting.
“How can that possibly make them tough?” she asked Finn quietly.
“The exoskin is actually fibers, not a single sheet,” he told her. “They’re incredibly tightly woven together, but allow complete flexibility.”
“Okay, wow, that’s…impressive.”
“There’s a price, though. The eggs are a synthetic organism, so their bonding goes deeper than a physical level. Some of the fibers merge with the host’s medulla oblongata so they can provide a basic control neurology over the exoskin.”
“Like your interface pad?”
“Not exactly. The eggs aren’t sentient, but they do have tactical paradigms that combine with the host’s thoughts and become instinctual.”
“Crap. So they puppet the hosts?”
“No. The host is still primary. See, the eggs were created for one purpose: to enhance a human’s fighting effectiveness. That involves more than boosting strength; they color the host’s outlook, too. Silicates…develop a different psychology from us after the bonding process. They see the universe in terms of threat and benefit. They can choose what cause they fight for, but they live for that fight.”
“Hellfire.”
“But once they choose which side they’re on, they stick with it. I expect that’s the main reason Toše and Tabia are offering them a deal. They’re not duplicitous. If they say they’ll protect us, they will.”
“Right.”
“Oh, and just to warn you, they’re not particularly social.”
“Thanks.”
Negotiations didn’t take long. The two Daves seemed irritated with the stipulation they were only to work perimeter around the aerobrake bubble when it was in the Portishead inlet. They agreed, but not with good grace. She was actually impressed with the way Toše stood his ground with them.
The globecabs took all of them down the slope to Portishead. Five sets of the big trackways curved over the big artificial inlet, while long clusters of scaffolding blocks lined the banks on both sides along with hefty machines and dozens of drums wound with thick hoses. Looking at all the equipment, Ellie saw the long stains of encrusted salt and rust blooms and oil streaks that spoke of an operation on the edge of viability. Everything needed upgrading or replacing.
“How old is Breakerville?” she asked.
“My people came here about five hundred years ago,” Davrux told her. “We left the Releeu Dominion after the Celestials had no further use for us. Their dominion did not recognize autonomy for Changelings. We lived on that planet for thousands of years before they arrived, but it counted for nothing.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. Here we have purpose. We work, we trade with Travelers. Life is good.”
