Nexus, Robert Boyczuk [best free ereader TXT] 📗

along, um, demands to Nexus for her release. Only they had no intention of ransoming her. Actual objective, you see, was to set up a controlled situation. An experiment. To observe a Speaker communicating.”

“Why?” Binlosson asked.

“Foolishly, they hoped to discover the secret of the Speakers. Instantaneous communications over interstellar distances. But their experiment was a dismal failure; however, they learned a few, um, interesting things. Two of relevance to us. First, the Speaker’s ability to communicate depends on being in a significant gravitational field. Yes. A planet orbiting a stellar mass, for example, would be suitable. Second, Speakers-or at least this one-haven’t a limitless range, as was, ah, believed. The maximum, they discovered, three light years. Yes. Beyond that, incapable of contacting her peers.”

“How could they tell?” Josua asked without taking his eyes from the projection. He was completely absorbed by the scene.

“Used a kind of modified EEG. A distinctive marker pattern accompanied any, ah, communication. Outside of the three light year limit, no marker activity.”

“So?” Binlosson said from where he slouched in his chair. “You think they’ll trade for these recordings? They’d sooner see us dead and the recordings destroyed.”

“You’re not hoping to bargain with these tapes, are you?” Josua asked.

“No, no,” Yilda said. “Binlosson’s right. If Nexus knew we had these, they’d, ah, destroy us without hesitation. That’s not why these recordings are, ah significant.” Yilda removed one card, placed another in the slot. The projection dissipated and was replaced by a star map that stretched across three-quarters of the table. A horizontal scale showed the image represented forty light years of space. It contained thousands of stars marked by white points, most clustered at either end, but thinning towards the middle, its general shape reminiscent of an hourglass on its side: it was a map of the Right and Left Leg Clusters. The Twins, a binary star system and the seat of power of Nexus, burnt red in the centre of the Left Leg cluster; Bh’Haret, twenty-one light years distant was represented by a pale green light at the far end of the much smaller Right Leg cluster. Yilda touched the projector and most of the stars winked out, leaving a hundred or so, most in the Left Leg, which turned bright blue. “Systems, ah, affiliated with Nexus,” Yilda said. Looking around the table, Yilda asked, “Notice anything, um, peculiar?” The map began to rotate.

Sav stared at the starscape. The pattern seemed random, except near the centre where the fog of stars thinned, gave out briefly, then thickened again. In the place where the hourglass narrowed, a lone star shone, marked the midpoint between the Left and Right Leg Clusters. Sav checked the scale, looked at the empty space again.

“The rift,” Sav said.

“Yes, yes.” Yilda nodded vigorously. The map stopped rotating, expanded to zoom on the section containing the isolated star. It was centered between affiliated systems in either cluster. But the systems were over five light years apart. “If Speakers are limited to communicating over distances of no more than three light years, how is the, ah, Left Leg Cluster connected to the Right?”

“A repeater station,” Josua said excitedly; he half rose from his seat. The reflection of the holo glittered in his eyes. “They have a repeater station!”

Yilda’s lips drew together into a thin smile. “That star is the only sizeable mass in the rift. Which, ah, means they have to have a station. There.” The image zoomed again, the star expanding until it was the size of a thumbnail; another object, a white point, appeared near the edge of the table. “General survey object SJH1231-K, Nexus Universal Catalog,” Yilda said, pointing at the new indicator. “Barren world without the distinction of a name. Thin atmosphere, cloaked in a severe and perpetual winter. Once supported rudimentary life. But now, little more than a ball of stone and ice circling this lone sun. Yes.”

“And let us not forget the thriving colony of Speakers.” Binlosson sneered. “Bah! Pure speculation.”

Josua glared at him. Ruen, who’d opened his eyes, now seemed to be watching the proceedings with open amusement. He edged towards Mira, a smile twisting up his lips, and began whispering loudly.

Hebuiza leaned forward, said something to Binlosson that Sav couldn’t quite hear; at the same time Yilda was saying, “No, no, no,” and waving his hand for silence. Binlosson’s face turned crimson and he began sputtering a retort. He turned to Sav and said something.

“What?” Sav said. “What did you say?” He couldn’t make out the small man’s words.

“Quiet!” Josua shouted, hammering his fist violently on the table. The reader jumped, shivering the image above the table; half a dozen data cards clattered to the floor. “Let Yilda finish!”

Binlosson narrowed his eyes, but clamped his mouth shut; Hebuiza sat back, arms crossed rigidly.

“Good,” Josua said. “Now, Yilda, if you’d care to continue….”

“Yes.” Yilda stooped to retrieve the data cards that had fallen to the floor and restacked them. “We have substantial evidence to corroborate the, ah, hypothesis.” He patted the pile. “Reports from worlds bordering the rift. About Nexus activity near that star. Nexus’ own detailed survey of the world, disseminated readily to affiliates-perhaps to discourage by showing the place to be a useless piece of rock. A transmission, purportedly from a non-affiliate ship that wandered too close to the planet. The transmission contains long distance survey shots taken before the ship, ah, disappeared. Yes.” A frame appeared above the planet, within it a roughly pixelated image with jagged edges: smeared shades of white, granite grey, a drop of brown. At first, nothing distinct could be made out, but then the borders between pixels dissolved, the colours melting into each other as the image was enhanced. It became an orbital view of a white plain at the foot of a mountain range. In the centre of the plain was a perfectly circular cream-coloured smudge, far too regular a pattern to be natural. “Yes,” Yilda said. “Likely a shot of an artificial dome.”

“I…I still don’t understand the relevance of all this,” Mira said, running her hands nervously along the edge of the table. “Why should we care about this place?”

“Don’t you see?” Binlosson said irritably, like he was talking to a dim-witted child. “It’s the leverage Yilda wants. The loss of the relay station would be a major setback to Nexus.” “It would sever their communications network,” Penirdth said more gently to Mira. “The Right Leg Cluster would be cut off from the Left Leg Cluster. The Speakers in the Right Leg would be alone, without their central authority-and unable to dispense any more of the information that keeps them in power, since everything flows from the Hub that orbits The Twins. Chaos would result. Even with their fastest ships, decades would pass before Nexus could transport new Speakers to the station. A thousand years of careful expansion into the Right Leg would come unravelled.”

“Yes, indeed,” Yilda said. “Absolutely correct.” Beside him, Hebuiza nodded curtly. “The plan, you see. Send The Viracosa to the Twins to secure the antidote. The Ea goes to object SJH1231-K to, ah, assume control.”

Assume control? Sav thought. He means take the Speakers at the relay station hostage. If there even is a relay station. Sav couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. Apparently, neither could anyone else, for everyone around the table was staring at Yilda. He seemed unperturbed.

“Once we control the station,” he continued, “we can make good on our threats. Yes.” Yilda looked around the room. “We have 104 days left. Time enough to prep the ships and get us into stasis before the plague manifests, eh? We time it so both ships arrive at their destinations at the same precise moment. We can then establish communications through the Speakers, using a prearranged series of, um, keywords. If a keyword is not passed at the appropriate time, those at the repeater station can use their, ah, discretion, to apply more pressure.”

“You mean to kill or torture our hostages,” Sav said.

“To, ah, be more precise, yes.”

“It’s crazy,” Sav said. Penirdth nodded his agreement, but Josua had eased back into his seat and was pulling at his lip, lost in thought. “First off,” Sav continued, “if they do have a relay station there, it’s going to be defended. And you know we haven’t a chance of penetrating their defences. Second, to send the Ea and The Viracosa to those destinations would take far more fuel than we have.”

Yilda smiled. “To answer the second question first, we have more than enough fuel. Yes. Our, ah, mission to Gibb was primarily to obtain rare metals: iridium, cerium and iodates. We arrived at orbital lazarette to find news of the plague had preceded us. They knew little, but understood it had, ah, devastated Bh’Haret. Didn’t matter to them that we left five years before the plague manifested. They asked us to leave immediately. Warned us that if we didn’t comply, we would be, ah, destroyed.”

“I was surprised they were so lenient,” Binlosson said. “I would have destroyed our ship with no warning.”

“As would I,” Yilda said. “But, ah, Gibb has an elected government. Destroying us would carry an enormous political cost. And an imminent plebiscite was in the works. Yes. No one wanted to take responsibility for giving the order. Understanding this, I bargained with them. Fill our hold with deuterium fuel pellets and we leave quietly. I reasoned that we could return to Bh’Haret, assess the, um, situation. If Bh’Haret proved uninhabitable, we would still have ample fuel left to reach a dozen different systems and try for asylum, hey? The fuel pellets were a small price to pay to get rid of us. The rulers of Gibb were only too eager to, ah, comply.” Yilda smiled abstractly, as if remembering the astuteness of his negotiating skills.

“You still haven’t answered my first question,” Sav said. “How do you propose to ‘take control’ of the repeater station?”

“I can’t answer.” Yilda waved a hand at Sav to cut off the objection he was about to make. “More precisely, I won’t. The less the crew going to The Twins knows of the other mission, the better. Yes. Hebuiza and I believe we can, ah, compromise the defences at the relay station. When the time is right, we will share the details with the crew that accompanies us.”

“Even given that, there’s still a big hole in your plan.” It was the first time Liis had spoken. “How will those at the repeater station receive the antidote? They’ll die before a cure can reach them.” She looked around the table, her gaze lingering on Josua. “They’ll die alone, on an alien world.” Josua’s expression remained blank.

“There is a good chance the Speakers have the facilities to synthesize the antidote at the repeater station. Because of the, um, isolation-and importance, yes-of the station, they will almost certainly have sophisticated medical facilities. For any contingency. But if it’s not possible to, ah, synthesize there, the party there can return to stasis. Yes. And wait for The Viracosa to arrive from The Twins. One of our demands will be refuelling and free passage for both groups to return to Bh’Haret. Once we’re home, we can use the antidote to cure those in stasis.”

“They’ll never let us get away with it,” Binlosson said. “They’ll destroy the_ Ea_ on its way back to Bh’Haret. Or whip up another plague for our return!”

“They will not,” Yilda said confidently. “Eyes of every world-affiliate and non-affiliate alike-will be on us. If our, um, plan succeeds, Nexus will take samples of the ‘plague’ from those on the Ea, analyze it and ‘produce’ an antidote-all without admitting their guilt. Yes. Deny engineering the plague. After that, they daren’t destroy us. That would, um,