Hollow Moon (39 page)

“The Raja is here!” Yaksha exclaimed. “I don’t know how,
but he is!”

Kartikeya gave an involuntary twitch as a surge of
adrenaline invigorated his shattered will, then quickly looked to his left.
Against all hope, he saw Surya and the girl Ravana standing next to Yaksha,
busily clipping microphones to their collars. The old woman herself, smiling
from ear to ear, gave the commander the thumbs up. A further glance at
Jaggarneth revealed he too was aware of their arrival. With a relieved grin,
Commander Kartikeya gripped the edges of the rostrum and contemplated the
speech before him.

“Back to Plan A,” he murmured.

His fingers strayed to the remote control unit inside his
sleeve. Now all he could think about was the hidden mind-probe device, waiting
to be activated.

Away in the wings, Ravana felt Raja Surya reach out and
take her hand in his own, both steeling themselves for the big moment. He had
sent a message to his mother during the flight to Daode and she wondered if the
Maharani would be watching the broadcast.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Surya asked.

Ravana nodded nervously and tried to recall why on
Yuanshi she had agreed to the plan put to her by Surya over a hurried meal
aboard the
Platypus
. On the opposite
side of the stage stood Ostara and her father, both looking much happier than
she had seen in ages.

“My little girl has all grown up,” she heard him say
proudly to Ostara. Her father had become quite sentimental, remarking earlier
that the sight of Ravana in the maroon and gold outfit Ganesa found for her
reminded him of his dearly-departed wife more than ever.

Backstage, Zotz and a flirtatious Philyra were whispering
urgently to Xuthus and pointing to something in the dressing room behind. Their
band mates looked on in a hushed state of excitement. On stage, the holovid
presenter turned to address the two speakers.

“Regrettably, we are nearing the end of our time slot,”
she said. “The debate will continue following the final performances in the
five-systems youth music competition, but for now would you care to make your
closing statements?”

Governor Jaggarneth opened his mouth to speak, but
Kartikeya was quicker.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the commander began, facing the
audience. “I am grateful Governor Atman felt it right that I should be here
tonight to represent the dispossessed of Yuanshi. The road to this peace
conference has been far from smooth, for this is a war driven by corporate
greed, one which has seen not only the loss of our right to govern ourselves
but also the alienation of the followers of Taranis and the Dhusarian Church.”

“A dangerous cult which sanctions acts of terror against
innocent citizens!” retorted Jaggarneth, surprising everyone with a sentence
both clear and concise. “I put it to my fellow delegates that the commander is
being disingenuous to the extreme.”

“Neither of you truly represent the people of Yuanshi!”
Surya suddenly declared.

All eyes were upon the Raja as he emerged from the wings
and walked to the centre of the stage. There he paused, savouring the ripple of
excited murmurs from the audience as they recognised him as the Maharaja’s
exiled heir, the subject of so many recent rumours.

“My father was the last to be so honoured and wanted only
for Yuanshi to be united.” His schooling had prepared him for this moment and
he sounded every bit the Maharaja’s son. “I am here tonight of my own
violation, but this was not how it was supposed to be.”

As he spoke, Ravana walked onto the stage to join him,
her heart in her mouth. With what she hoped was a dramatic flourish, she
pointed a finger at Commander Kartikeya.

“This man arranged for the Raja to be kidnapped and
brought here to be used as a puppet figurehead for his rebellion!” she cried.
Seeing Governor Jaggarneth smirk, Ravana whirled around and pointed instead at
him. “And this man allowed it to happen! Both of these so-called leaders were
happy to use Surya as a pawn in their games. Neither is worthy to provide the
leadership Yuanshi so desperately needs.”

“What is this nonsense?” retorted Jaggarneth. “Must we
put up with this slander?”

“The young Raja is weary from his travels and is
confused,” said Kartikeya.

Ravana saw him pressing a thumb against something in his
hand, his scowl deepening by the second. Up in the control room, unseen by all,
the mind probe gurgled and died as it succumbed to the half litre of wine
Endymion had earlier poured into its data rod slot after liberating a bottle
from Miss Clymene’s room. Kartikeya threw down the remote in disgust and glared
at Ravana and Surya. Jaggarneth was not so easily rattled.

“Perhaps some introductions are in order,” the governor
suggested. “Irregular though this interruption is, we should make an effort to
swing our satellites around the same star.”

“We embody the two original colonies of Yuanshi,” said
Surya. “I am Raja Surya of Ayodhya. My father was assassinated by special
agents of the Que Qiao Corporation.”

“I am Ravana O’Brien of Lanka,” said Ravana, trying her
best not to forget her hastily-concocted speech. “My mother was killed at
Aranya Pass in an attack led by Commander Kartikeya himself. We have both lived
in exile for many years, but having now again seen Ayodhya and Lanka, the heart
and soul of Yuanshi, we are saddened to find that our home world still lacks a
brain! I see no sign of it in either of you, nor in the minds of the Dhusarian
Church. I come from a community where everyone is accountable for their
actions. This is something I have not seen here in the shadow of Shennong.”

“You come from a forgotten colony ship, near a planet no
one cares about, orbiting a star too dim to see!” retorted Kartikeya. “You do
not know the mind of Yuanshi!”

“The fact remains that neither the Maharaja nor the
Governor was elected to office,” said the holovid presenter, who had listened
to Ravana and Surya with interest. “Do you not think that the government of
Yuanshi should be answerable to its citizens?”

“Yuanshi is a business operation!” snapped Jaggarneth.
“No more, no less!”

“It is home to half a million people,” Surya replied.
“Something you seem to forget.”

“You’ve changed.” Kartikeya sounded disappointed. “A few
days ago you were eager to seize your place as your father’s heir. This was to
have been our hour! Lanka and the Dhusarian Church together to fight for what
we believe is right! This war will not be ended by idle talk. What made you
turn your back on all this?”

“The lies,” said Surya. “The scheming. Your refusal to
help Ravana in her hour of need. But most of all, I can’t believe you thought
it was right to ban song and dance!”

“What?” exclaimed Kartikeya. “That was the reason?”

“I was going crazy in Kubera not being able to listen to
music or play my violin!”

Jaggarneth smiled. “Dhusarians do have some very odd
ideas.”

“There are good reasons why Taranis made that ruling…” Kartikeya
began.

“This is not the time for a debate on religion,” the
presenter hastily interrupted. “We are almost out of time. Raja Surya, Ravana;
your appearance here tonight is unexpected but not, dare I say it, unwelcome.
Do you have any last words for your audience?”

Ravana glanced to the side of the stage and saw Zotz
awaiting her signal. Next to him was a boy she recognised from the floating
market. She gave Zotz a nod and as quick as a flash he disappeared behind the
curtain to join the rest of the band.

“I came to Daode as a player in a school band, hoping to
do my bit for peace,” said Ravana. Right on cue, the plaintive wail of a
home-made quadraphonic autoharp theremin drifted out of the hall’s public
address system. She felt a shiver run down her back. “Music is all things to
all people and comes directly from the soul. I hope that being here with others
from across the five systems, we can show how we can come together as one.”

The high, wavering flutter of a flute joined the
theremin. The presenter, seizing the opportunity to bring the debate to a
poignant close, signalled to her backstage colleagues to open the main
curtains. As the apprehensive players of Newbrum were revealed to the eyes of
the worlds, a nervous Xuthus stepped onto the stage and approached Surya and
Ravana, his violin in his hands. Zotz was concentrating upon his theremin but
found time for a quick grin.

“Raja Surya,” said Xuthus. Somewhat awestruck, he looked
ready to curtsey as he presented his violin and bow. “Would you care to join
the performance?”

“I would be delighted!” Surya exclaimed. He took the
offered instrument.

“I’ll need it back afterwards,” Xuthus whispered
hurriedly.

The Raja put the violin to his shoulder and played a
quick double-stopped riff as a counterpoint to Zotz’s and Philyra’s ambient
improvisation, then gave a broad grin. Yaksha and her opposite number were busy
trying to preserve Kartikeya’s and Jaggarneth’s dignity by getting them off
stage as gracefully as possible, for both leaders looked increasingly
disgruntled at the way the debate had slipped out of their hands. Backstage,
someone hurriedly brought an extra chair for the new member of the band.

“No more talking!” Surya declared. “It’s time for some
music!”

“Ladies and gentlemen,” announced the presenter. “The
Newbrum Academy band!”

Miss Clymene, standing with baton raised as Ravana and
Surya took their seats, was trying to maintain a professional composure but
looked like the cat that got the cream. Zotz and Philyra brought their
improvisation around to the opening bars of Bantoff’s
Shennong
, thus enabling Bellona and Endymion to finally work
out what was going on and join in. Ravana picked up her cornet and smiled
across to Surya, who was scrutinising the music on Endymion’s stand, then
looked to where her father, Ostara and Yaksha were watching from the wings and
waving. Everything in the world suddenly seemed right.

“Ready?” whispered Miss Clymene. “Let’s show them what we
can do!”

The rest of the evening was a blur. Later, Ravana recalled
little of all that followed the euphoria and rapturous applause at the end of
their performance, other than the endless hugs from her father, the emotional
backstage reunion with Yaksha and the excitement of the band when the winners
of the music competition were finally announced. Celebrations were short;
Yaksha advised the crew of the
Platypus
to
leave Daode as soon as they could, for she had overheard some disturbing
exchanges between Kartikeya and Jaggarneth. By the time the peace conference
officially drew to a close, they were rocketing away from Hemakuta and ignoring
all calls from Taotie space-traffic control to await security clearance. A few
hours and one gut-wrenching extra-dimensional jump later, the
Platypus
was back in the Barnard’s Star system and a
mere ten million kilometres from home.

Quirinus and Ostara had the flight deck to themselves,
leaving the Newbrum band to continue their celebrations in the confines of the
spinning carousel. Ravana’s cat had gone to sleep inside a cupboard aboard the
ship whilst the crew were at the conference, but was now out of hiding and
sitting contentedly upon Ravana’s lap. Miss Clymene was captivated by the tiny
gold cup in her hands. She had not once let go of it since Governor Atman
presented it to her and still could not believe all that had transpired.

“We won,” she murmured, for what seemed the millionth
time that night. “My little band is the best in the whole five systems!”

Ravana, Bellona and Surya were looking at the screen of
Philyra’s wristpad, watching a short holovid she had recorded earlier with
Endymion’s help. It showed Philyra in the conference hall control room, acting
the part of a newscaster as she related the story of the plot to brainwash the
Raja and inflame the civil war. Surya was visibly perturbed when he saw the
on-screen Philyra hold up the device Endymion had found in the crate. By now
they had all swapped tales of what they had learned on Yuanshi and Daode and
the Raja had been quite startled at the political machinations going on around
him.

“It’s a good report,” he said approvingly. “Do you plan
to show it to anyone?”

“We already have,” Philyra told him. “We used the hotel
messaging service to send it to everyone on the Avalon broadcast team. It’s
also been uploaded to the net. We filmed it when we went back to sabotage the
device,” she added, feeling an explanation was due. She gave Bellona a smug
look. “Still think it was a stupid idea?”

“It’s fantastic!” said Ravana. “This is the sort of
rebellion I like!”

“One thing still puzzles me,” mused Endymion. “In films
the bad guy always has a motive but I can’t see what Fenris had to gain from
all this.”

“Fenris was just the stooge,” Zotz declared. “The real
bad guy is Taranis!”

“Taranis?” asked Bellona. “Who is he?”

“The leader of the Dhusarian Church,” said Surya. “Yaksha
called him a mad priest and said he was the one who banned music and dancing in
Lanka.”

“Hanuman told us he was also interested in aliens and
cloning,” added Ravana.

“This Taranis sounds a right bundle of laughs,” muttered
Miss Clymene, still staring at the gold cup in her hands. “I’m glad you left
him behind on Yuanshi.”

“That’s the odd thing,” Endymion remarked. “Back at the
hotel, when we hacked into the holovid between Taranis and Fenris, the call
came via the Ascension servermoon.”

“There’s a mad priest loose back home?” asked Philyra.
“Are you on egg?”