Hellhole: Awakening (19 page)

Ishop had hoped for a well-choreographed spectacle, with the toppling sheet crystal decapitating Ciarli, but the sharp pane had tumbled in the air and broken in half, making a butchered mess of the victim. Not the finesse he would have liked, but a success nevertheless.

When he met Laderna at the redstone townhouse they shared, her eyes shone as she presented him with her discoveries as well. He found the archival details far more interesting than the story of killing yet another guilty noble.

“Plenty of colorful details, boss,” she said. “It really helps paint the picture of your ancestors’ tribulations, how they were caught up in political machinations, lost the game.”

Since learning of his family’s long-ago disgrace, Ishop had become fascinated by his history, wanting to learn more details about why they had been exiled to the backwater Crown Jewel planet Ogg. Heading there to study civic records, Laderna had sifted through old files, reconstructed the history, connected the dots, and now proudly presented him with the full story, including names and dates of the people involved, the failed attempts to thwart schemers that had taken everything from the Osheer family, the alliances and trumped-up legal documents and court cases that stole Ishop’s heritage.

“In hindsight, boss,” Laderna said, “your ancestors were naïve, didn’t safeguard themselves against their enemies. I think they were surprised when they were buried under the avalanche of plots.”

Ishop read the new report: A group of treacherous nobles had gathered valuable planetary assets for themselves, then conspired to manufacture false charges against Lord Elman Osheer. Sensing a plump fruit for the picking, they had brought about Elman’s disgrace, maneuvering the Council into issuing a censure that stripped his family of noble titles for a period of seven hundred years, while they divided up the spoils.

Now certain descendants of those traitors were losing everything as well, thanks to Ishop and Laderna.

His own ancestors might not have been ready for the web of treachery that destroyed them, but he was smarter than that. And more determined.

The destruction of the Osheer family bore disturbing parallels to what he himself had recently perpetrated against the de Carre family, as ordered by the Diadem. Louis de Carre had been distracted and incompetent, a fool in a world full of predators, much like Lord Elman Osheer. Lord de Carre had already been destroyed by the schemes and sabotage of the Riominis—he’d lost his wealth, his planet, his honor; his son had been exiled, the whole family ruined—and yet Michella commanded Ishop to murder the poor fop as well, to make it look like a shameful suicide. Was that really necessary?

Ishop had the blood of de Carre on his own hands, and he didn’t like it very much.

He shook off any disturbing echoes of guilt. Ishop had his own honor to uphold, and the situation was now reversed. Since he was not a commoner after all, he had to start acting like a noble, with noble actions.

In the meantime, to make everything neat, tidy, and satisfying, he had two more people to kill while he was still a “commoner.”

And one of them was a Duchenet.…

27

Back on Candela, Tanja Hu worked at her office in the harbor city of Saporo, waiting for the Theser engineers to finish installing engines in the six warships that would defend her planet. She found her administrative work much more difficult without her assistant, Bebe Nax—a catalyst, a rudder, an organizer, a sounding board, and a good friend. Now that Bebe devoted her energies to fostering the shadow-Xayan seed colony out near the iperion mines, as well as managing the mines herself, Tanja rarely saw the woman.

Over the years of her service, Bebe had been a devoted, detail-oriented person. Tanja had hired other assistants, but none had worked out as well; the woman could do the work of three. Now, frustrated with details that her other employees let slip through the cracks, Tanja flew her own aircraft out to the iperion mines. She needed advice and, most of all, she just wanted to see Bebe.

As usual, the two women greeted each other with hugs. Tanja regarded the small, feisty woman with a sigh of relief. “Please tell me the mines and the shadow-Xayan colony are running smoothly.” She needed something to be going well, without unnecessary complications.

Bebe’s dark brown eyes glittered when she replied. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. How is Jacque doing?” Bebe had placed her ten-year-old son in a dormitory in Saporo where he could continue his education.

“As of last week he was doing well at school. I think he’d learn just as much from being around you, though.”

Bebe’s eyes misted over. “Tell him I’ll come to visit as soon as I can get away. I miss him.” Tanja kept herself so focused on the Constellation threat that she sometimes forgot that other people had personal lives. Bebe proved to be a good reminder for her.

As if to set aside thoughts of the boy, Bebe gestured toward the newly built settlement on a wooded hillside near the mining operations. The buildings consisted of alien telemancy-formed structures mingled with standard prefab housing units.

Tel Clovis walked up from the small settlement and joined the two women. He served as an intermediary between the shadow-Xayans and Bebe. “We strive to prove ourselves useful here, Administrator Hu. We have been practicing our telemancy to protect Candela, and to prepare our race for
ala’ru.
” He guided them toward an arrangement of the exotic, free-form buildings. “Come, this might interest you.”

The alien structures had smooth architectural lines, supposedly identical to old Xayan buildings. The caterpillar form of Tryn moved among the structures, accompanied by shadow-Xayans who gathered in the center of the colony. Tel Clovis smiled, a strange and placid expression that cut through his persistent aura of sadness, and before Tanja could ask what he intended, the new alien-form buildings uprooted themselves and lifted into the air. The clustered shadow-Xayans were airborne, too, and the levitating structures began to spin, slowly at first, and then faster until they became a blur. In a matter of moments the floating settlement vanished entirely, and then the blur came back into view, the free-form buildings spinning slower and slower, until they settled down to the ground again.

“Interesting,” Tanja said. “But what purpose does it serve?”

“Maybe to demonstrate their abilities?” Bebe suggested.

“It was an experiment with a specific objective,” Tel said as the sluglike Original alien approached, accompanied by two shadow-Xayan companions.

Tryn bent her humanoid torso atop the caterpillar body in an awkward attempt at a bow. “That was an effort to connect with the others back on Xaya. We can link minds across space through telemancy strands, somewhat like your stringline paths. We must remain joined with the rest of our race for harmony, and all of us keep building toward
ala’ru.
”

Tanja knew how the human converts clung together, almost like a hive mind. “It must be difficult to be so far from the other shadow-Xayans.”

“While you were away on Theser, we had a few problems,” Bebe said. “Five of the new colonists panicked at being away from their own world—they levitated themselves back to the spaceport and tried to commandeer a stringline ship. Before Tryn could bring them under control, they injured two security personnel, using telemancy to hurl objects at them. Fortunately, things have quieted down considerably since then.”

“All five are now contributing members of the colony,” Tel Clovis added. “But I also feel the loss of being so far away. Renny’s memories remain somewhere in the slickwater pools back on Xaya.”

Tryn said, “In the demonstration you just witnessed, my shadow-Xayans enabled me to feel the auras of Encix and Lodo, as well as the thousands of other shadow-Xayans gathered back home … but we must continue to train, and advance. The stronger we become, and the more Xayan memories we reawaken from the slickwater, the greater our chances of ascension.”

“We help you, and you help us.” Tanja placed her hands on her narrow hips. “Protect the Deep Zone from Constellation attack, and you’re welcome to do your
ala’ru
afterward.”

“That is our intent,” Tryn said. “We have given our word.” The Original turned and glided back toward the settlement.

*   *   *

Since Tanja had traveled out to the distant location, Bebe Nax led the planetary administrator on a full inspection tour of the nearby iperion mines.

After leaving the small shadow-Xayan colony, they stopped at a small office building just outside the main shafts. Iperion production continued at a substantial pace, with shipments regularly dispatched to the stringline hub at Hellhole and distributed throughout the DZ for line maintenance. Tanja needed her own iperion supply for the linerunners establishing new routes from her Candela hub. The decentralization would benefit the Deep Zone, giving all frontier worlds the freedom to establish their own trade relationships.

The two women entered Bebe’s temporary office and made tea in a kitchenette. Tanja asked about the intransigent Governor Undine; on her specific instructions, the political prisoner was being held under appalling conditions in a nearby swampy area, the mudflats that marked a devastated town. After all the suffering the Constellation had caused here, Tanja did not feel guilty about making this midlevel figurehead miserable. She relished the images of the squalid, disgusting holding cell.

Bebe, though, was uncomfortable about what she had done. “You did give me specific instructions to make her suffer, but … Governor Undine is a recognized representative from the Constellation. Are you sure this isn’t being too extreme?” Here, in private, Bebe spoke to her as a friend rather than a formal assistant.

Tanja sniffed, feeling all her bitterness toward the corrupt government. “Extreme? Hardly. Don’t forget the people of Puhau, buried under meters of mud because of what the Diadem forced us to do.” She could not drive away the memories of her uncle Quinn, who had been the first manager of these iperion mines, before Michella’s greed for more and more tribute shipments killed him by forcing the unsafe mining practices. “Governor Undine can be uncomfortable until General Adolphus tells us what to do with her. I expect we’ll use her to send a message to Sonjeera.”

Bebe nodded. She had made her point and accepted the response. “I’ll make sure Undine causes no problems. And I’ll keep the iperion mines running smoothly. Just a matter of attention to detail.”

Tanja sipped her steaming tea. “What would I do without you, Bebe?”

“You’d govern less effectively.”

They traveled from the admin office to the iperion mines, where they encountered four grave-looking guards manhandling a male prisoner whose head was bloody and bandaged. One of the angry guards looked up, recognized her. “Administrator Hu! We caught a spy taking images in one of the airshafts of Mine Four.”

Tanja stood in front of the battered man. He had very short black hair and a stubble of beard. His small eyes darted around like a caged animal’s as he avoided her gaze. The Diadem would have rewarded a spy extravagantly for information on the secret Candela iperion mines.

“Taking souvenir pictures?” Tanja asked, her tone dripping acid. “An odd place for a tourist.” The spy made no excuses for why he had been in a highly sensitive, unauthorized area. In disgust, she turned to Bebe and said, “Use any method necessary to loosen his tongue. Find out if he’s caused any sabotage, or if he has any cohorts.”

Bebe looked determined. “I’ll move it to the top of my list of things to do.”

28

“By now Redcom Hallholme has surely realized his dire circumstances,” Adolphus said to Sophie as they stood outside on the porch at night. The stars above Elba looked infinite and full of possibilities. “The Constellation fleet will try to find their way back to Sonjeera, but that won’t work. In another week they’ll begin to panic. Two more weeks, and they will have lost hope.” He smiled, visualizing the five isolated stringline haulers filled with thousands of crew. “I intend to give them enough time to know they are completely defeated—and then our fleet will go in and round them up. Three weeks is a long time when you’re stranded out there.”

He felt more relaxed than he could remember in a long time. “Meanwhile, we’ve got nothing to do but wait—and I plan to take advantage of the opportunity. I’ve been exiled on Hellhole for more than ten years, and I will no longer abide by the Diadem’s terms. It’s time I left this planet. The symbolic gesture is important.”

Sophie agreed and slipped close to hug him. “Where will you go?”

“Ridgetop, I think—to visit Governor Goler.”

“I’ve heard the goldenwood groves are marvelous,” Sophie said. “I want to see them for myself. In fact, I want to see all of the Deep Zone, now that we’re free. We can—”

“I promise we’ll visit those places together, Sophie—after this is over. For now, I have another matter to take care of. Once we capture the fleet, the Diadem will have to capitulate. I intend to have Carlson Goler negotiate a Deep Zone accord with the Crown Jewels. He seems like the most appropriate liaison.”

“And while you’re gone,” Sophie said with a long sigh, “I am going to see Devon.”

*   *   *

It did not seem possible for the peculiar red-weed forests to grow so swiftly, but the lush foliage surged forward faster than the telemancy could drive it back from the growing shadow-Xayan settlement. The first chaotic growths had appeared shortly after the discovery of the slickwater pools, and recently, according to satellite imagery, dozens of similar infestations had sprouted in isolated, unpopulated valleys across the continent. Hellhole seemed to be burgeoning.

For months, as the numbers of converts swelled and more Xayan memories were awakened, the settlement thrived; nearly three thousand shadow-Xayans lived amid oddly geometric alien structures. Accompanied by a watchful and cautious Encix, Devon-Birzh and Antonia-Jhera continued to organize large crowds of shadow-Xayans, guiding them through exercises to increase their cooperative telemancy and to move closer to their sacred racial goal.