Shadow Hunters (7 page)

“Not only were we able to ditch the tracking device,” she told him as she emerged from the bulky suit, “it’s now going to lead anyone who’s latched onto its signal on a wild-goose chase. I’ve rigged it to engage from here. We’l want to beat a quick retreat once I activate it, though, just in case the movement attracts any attention.”

She hung up the suit and turned to Jake. “I’m certain that those Wraiths are in the area. Let’s put you to work monitoring Dominion standard com channels while I hook al this stuff up.”

She directed him into a seat and entered a rotational sequence in the com system.

“Maybe they’l give their presence away and alow us to get a fix on their location.”

The minutes ticked by as Jake monitored and Rosemary tinkered. Annoyed, Jake finaly began to suspect that she had given him this task to keep him out of the way and occupied. Finaly, Rosemary emerged, looking grubby and tired. As she took her seat, she said, “So. Hey, Zamara, how do we get to Aiur from here?”

I will require an accurate map of the sector.

“Pul up a map and show her where we are,” Jake said. Rosemary did.

“Zoom out,” Jake said, again speaking for the alien inteligence inside his skul.

“Again,” he instructed. And a third time he asked her. She raised a raven brow.

That is sufficient for my needs. I shall enter the coordinates.

… Okay.

Jake leaned forward and relinquished control of his hands and watched, bemused, as they entered a series of digits. How did Zamara know how to program a—of course.

Zamara had been linked with R. M. on a very deep level a few hours ago. She’d have the same knowledge the human woman did. Rosemary looked on with interest.

“Wel, it’s no day trip. Good thing I scrounged up some extra rations. Okay. We al set?”

Jake and Zamara nodded.

“Al right. Getting in was fairly easy. Getting out won’t be. Those Wraiths wil scan for power sources and movement inside the debris field, so we need a little diversion.

There’s no way they won’t come here looking for us, so we might as wel make the most of it. Now. Watch that ship right there.”

Rosemary pointed at a freighter. She lifted a smal device and thumbed a button. Sure enough, after a few moments, the freighter powered to life and began to move steadily away from them.

“Nice job, Rosemary,” Jake said.

“Thanks, Professor.”

It was quite possibly the most pleasant exchange the two of them had ever had.

However, the good mood was short-lived. A few moments later, as R. M. was slowly and carefuly steering them out of the debris field, she swore under her breath.

“Yep, looks like our decoy’s stirred up a bit of interest. Buckle up, Jake. We might have to make a run for it, and it could get pretty bumpy.”

He sat down at once, strapping himself in, and peered over at the screen. He could see a few blinking red dots, and knew by this point that red signified Dominion.

“You think they’ve found us?”

“Not sure yet.” Both of them watched the screen intently. After a few seconds, the red dots began to converge on the decoy. Jake felt a quick stab of horror, relief, and then fresh worry in rapid succession. Rosemary’s ploy had worked, but pursuit had found them much too quickly for comfort. It wouldn’t take their pursuers long to determine that this was a trick. And then they would start looking around the ruins of this old battlefield to see where the real quarry was.

With perfect calm, Rosemary continued to move the system runner. Jake bit his lip nervously. The Dominion vessels closed in on the decoy freighter.

“Rosemary …” Jake said.

“Not yet,” she murmured. Her face was focused, intent. Jake felt sweat break out beneath his arms.

The red dots stopped moving. The decoy freighter continued on.

“They figured it out,” Rosemary said. She hit something, and the system runner surged forward. The red dots stirred to life and began to close in on them. Jake gripped the metal arms of his chair.

“Now!” Rosemary pressed the button. Space shimmered around them. There were no more smal blinking red dots on the screen. Rosemary leaned back in her chair and laughed. “Piece of cake.”

Jake smiled weakly.

“A decoy. I see.”

Valerian’s voice was cold with disapproval, and the woman on the screen looked dreadfuly unhappy. He supposed he shouldn’t be too surprised that, once again, the damnably clever Rosemary and Jake had slipped through his fingers. The handful of people set to guard what had essentialy disintegrated into a space junkyard were hardly the best and the brightest the Dominion had to offer. He’d never have gotten even this close to finding the two fugitives—or was it three? Should he count the protoss inteligence in Jake’s brain as a separate entity? How unfortunate that he did not know—had it not been for Devon Starke’s knowledge of the tracking code.

“There, uh, is something,” the woman was saying, shuffling papers with a rather frantic air. She was clearly going to do everything she could to make this not seem like the disaster it was.

“Oh?”

She nodded. “Yes. Security did report seeing another ship power up shortly after we caught up with the decoy. Now, Mr. V, you understand that that’s not unusual. The wreckage is tempting to a variety of scroungers and we aren’t sufficiently manned to patrol it as thoroughly as we would like.”

He gave her a smile. “I understand. But please continue.”

She seemed heartened. “Let me send you the documentation we have on it.”

A few second later, Valerian and Starke were watching a poor-quality hologram.

They watched in silence as the somewhat battered Wraiths folowed the Valkyrie, took a scan, and listened to the two pilots express their annoyance in colorful words at having been tricked. More colorful words ensued as they realized another vessel was moving out of the debris field and into open space. The Wraiths turned to folow, but the system runner they were folowing had made it to a clear place and had subwarped to who knew where, and who realy cared, and it was time for lunch anyway.

“I hope that was helpful, sir.” The woman was slightly pink, realizing, as she knew he had to, that it hardly painted security in a particularly inspirational light.

“It may wel be. Thank you.”

Unable to continue smiling politely, Valerian thumbed off the switch and scowled.

“We almost had them. If my father staffed these places with inteligent people rather than lazy buffoons, we would have.”

Even as he said the words he knew they were unfair. A government that had the luxury of staffing remote space junkyards with top-notch staff by definition would have far fewer problems than the Dominion had.

He sighed and turned to Starke. “The question is, where would they go next? There are hundreds of places in this sector alone they could hide.”

Starke nodded thoughtfuly. “In the … the link, for want of a better word, I managed to sense a little something of this protoss that’s using Professor Ramsey. Of course, it is much more adept at hiding its thoughts and feelings than even the best-trained ghost is, because it’s a protoss. But one thing I did get was a trace of annoyance at the links being utilized, and a hint of concern. Dahl was right. The protoss didn’t just force itself into Professor Ramsey’s brain for amusement or as part of a normal cycle.

It did it because it felt it had to. So, knowing this, my best guess is that the protoss would want to rejoin its people. And look at this.”

Starke pressed the rewind button and again they watched the hologram. He paused it at one point. “Look at where the system runner is heading.”

“It leaps, Devon; we can’t folow it if we don’t know its destination.”

“True enough. But think about what we know of human nature. You’ve been discovered, you know where you are heading, you make a run for it—sily as it might sound, even if you’re planning a jump—wouldn’t your first instinct be to flee in the right direction?”

Valerian smiled slowly. “Yes. Yes, it would be.” He caled up a star chart of the galaxy and smiled. “Of course. They’re heading for Aiur.”

AS JAKE HAD KNOWN IT WOULD, AIUR HAD PROSpered under Adun’s
guidance as the executor of the templar, which managed to be strong and yet
not heavy-handed. Directing the templar to the will of the Conclave, Adun had
overseen the settling of several colonies that were thriving and content. Any
disputes with other races that had broken out had been quickly quelled with few
casualties to the pro-toss. It was a good time to be alive.

Jake entered the executor’s citadel, which was a small, private retreat that
hovered gracefully above Antioch. He found Adun in deep contemplation,
wearing the heavy purple, black, and white robes of his office, staring out onto
the cityscape below. In the distance, the lush green and blue hues of the rain
forest softened the line of the horizon.

Jake inclined his head deeply, respectfully. Adun turned from the view and
repeated the gesture.

“You sent for me, Executor?”

Adun nodded. “Yes, Vetraas. I have been called in front of the Conclave. It
seems they have some information they wish to impart.”

Curiosity flickered in Jake, but was quickly hooded before Adun could pick up
on it. Over two millennia ago, the great Khas, as he had become known—“He
who brings order”—had rediscovered the profound link all protoss could have
with one another. He had drafted a series of rules on how best to navigate this
intimate space, and the collection of rules and the emotional and mental link
itself had become known as the Khala. Jake knew that Khas had had another
name, but it was lost to everyone but the preservers now, and besides, what
Khas had done was more important than who he had been before such a
significant discovery.

“I don’t know that that’s true,” Jake said to Zamara. As before, when Jake had relived the memories of a protoss named Temlaa as if they were actualy happening to him, Zamara was with him, guiding him through the process so he retained himself.

“Savassan was a pretty remarkable felow before he even found the first khaydarin crystal. It’s a shame his name has been forgotten.”

“The preservers know it. The preservers know al. Wel, almost al. And that is what matters now. Khas he has become, and Khas he shal be, until the final protoss closes his eyes for the last time and al becomes lost to the stars.”

Part of the dictates of the Khala had advised a caste system, with various tribes
falling into one of the three castes of judicator, templar, and khalai. The vast
majority of protoss tribes were collected under the khalai, who were the
artisans, scientists, and builders of their people. This caste was as valued as the
others, for without them, there would be no infrastructure, no development in
culture and science and art. Their contributions were vital.

The templar, of which Adun and Jake were a part, was the warrior caste. The
templar tribes were those who had great physical prowess or agility, or tended
toward sound military insight and strategy. In the early days of the Khala, they
fought to protect the newly unified protoss culture from those who did not
agree with the tenets, or were too afraid to do so. It was, Jake mused, an
indication of how relatively primitive the protoss were then. It did not take long
for all the protoss to eventually realize that the only way to peace and
prosperity was through the Khala. There could be no hatred then, for even if
you disagreed with someone, you felt him as yourself. Once this harmony was
achieved, the pro-toss society flourished quickly and healthily, and the templar
were free to focus on protecting their people, at first from the fearsome
creatures who prowled Aiur, and later from hostile alien beings they
encountered while settling their colonies.

The third and final caste, the judicators, were the elders and statesmen, the
governing body of the protoss. Their highest members were known as the
Conclave. This was a select group of elders, chosen for their wisdom and
knowledge of the Khala and a passionate adherence to its rules. Some of them
were protoss whom Jake deeply admired and respected. Others were … not.

Nonetheless, Adun and the other templar answered with unquestioning
obedience to the Conclave. Which was why Jake was surprised to note Adun’s
discomfort at having been summoned to appear before them at the Great
Forum, the Khor-shakal, the seat of Aiur’s government.

“I would have you accompany me, Vetraas,” Adun continued. “They have
asked to speak with me alone, but I would prefer to have my most trusted
adviser with me at such a meeting. There was something … well. Will you
come?”

“Of course,” Jake responded.

The Conclave, led by the elder Kortanul, was none too pleased that the
executor had disobeyed their instructions and not come alone. Adun calmly and
respectfully asked that Jake be included, and after some private discussion the
Conclave agreed. While the thoughts they directed toward Jake were definitely
not conciliatory, he was only amused and curious as to the need for such
secrecy.