The Alpha Choice (75 page)

Garnoth returned the gesture. ‘Then, for now it remains a mystery, but one to keep in mind. Who knows, it may come to mean something later. Let us concentrate on something we can influence, the reaction of the Supreme Council to what has happened…’

‘You forget, Garnoth, I have no idea what’s happened in the last day.’

‘Of course, my dear,’ he had resumed his mantle of supreme self-confidence. ‘Where shall I start?’ He then recounted the appearance of the blue light and everything that led to Eclipse being displaced, but withheld some information and awaited her reaction.

‘I’ll tell you what I think, when you tell me what else has happened.’

‘I see the last day has not dampened your perception,’ then without smiling, her mentor described the incident involving Genir. ‘Now perhaps you can provide me with any information of interest from Telluria?’

She relayed everything that had transpired, from the appearance of the Tellurians, Tyler and Green, to her appearance on the flagship, being careful to exclude any reference to Garnoth's aberrant behaviour in the signing room - this was not the time to press him on that issue. ‘It’s likely the Custodians were involved before the death of the Tellurian woman, how else can we explain the Tellurian’s possession of the object.’

‘Ah, yes, I recall asking you to take possession of it. What do we know of its provenance and qualities?’

Tala decided that the sensation she experienced, just before it disappeared, was something best kept to herself. ‘As soon as I was made aware of it, I caused a search to be made and as you saw for yourself, it vanished almost as soon as I took hold of it.’

Garnoth looked deeply into the eyes of his favourite student. ‘And what did you experience, my dear?’

She tried to appear as disinterested as possible. ‘Frustration!’

He kept his eyes on hers. ‘So, other than the ability to disappear, we have no idea what it does, if indeed it does anything except glow and vanish?’

‘Correct.’

‘All promise and no substance,’ he broke eye contact and sat back to be engulfed in the over large chair.

‘We’ll never know,’ satisfied her mentor had noticed nothing untoward, she continued. ‘What is Darl’s take on Custodian involvement, and I don’t mean their obvious intervention?’

The Avatar, mute since Tala’s arrival, chose to speak. ‘The commander has already inferred Custodian involvement during the battle, but does not have the information to allow him to hypothesise further. His conclusion is consistent with Beron’s breach of the Accords,’ then addressing the Agency head, it added. ‘You know what this means? If the Custodians have interfered, they...’ Garnoth completed the sentence ‘…might have caused Beron to behave as he did. Provided, it was no accident.’

Garnoth shook his head. ‘Until we have had the opportunity to question Beron, directly, there is no point in conjecture. He then stood up and began to pace the room. ‘But why?’ he asked, more of himself, than those present. ‘They live by the Accords. If they wanted to destroy us we now know they could do it, with very little effort. It makes perfect sense that they were there to monitor us, we expected as much, but why would they interfere?’ He turned away from both of them as an idea began to form in his mind. Tala neither said, nor did anything for fear of breaking his train of thought. Once satisfied his theory fitted the circumstances, he turned back to face them. ‘What I think happened is this, we have been infiltrated by the rebellion.’ He could see the look of doubt in Tala's face, but continued. ‘Reason tells us it cannot be the Custodians. They have stood by while we have destroyed one civilisation after another. They have never stopped us save once, and then merely insisted we abide by their arcane rules. They would not engineer a breach.’
 

‘But if it was the rebellion, why would they risk the destruction of our entire race?’ Asked Tala.

‘Perhaps they did not think it would come to that. After all, if President Conway had accepted the device you tried to secure, the agreement would not have been made and we would have been powerless.’
 

‘You’re surely not suggesting the rebellion had anything to do with the device?’

‘Of course not, that is where I think the Custodians did involve themselves. It was the only thing they could do, act through an intermediary, but it is interesting that they chose a Tellurian, which again suggests they were not involved with the rebels. They are not like us Tala, they believe in their wretched rules and would not break them. I am sure our nemesis was not assisting the rebellion.’

‘The communications failure? If your theory is correct, then the Custodians would not be involved in that,’ Tala suggested.

‘That is a fair point, but we have already established that such interference is beyond us,’ replied Garnoth.

‘There is another explanation we haven’t considered, which has nothing to do with the Custodians.’

While he did not sit forward in his chair, the spymaster sat up straight at his student’s teaser. ‘Well?’

‘Darl has come at the problem from the wrong angle,’ Garnoth noted that she avoided linking
him
to any mistakes. ‘If it isn’t possible for us to interfere with the implant or the communications, the most obvious answer is not that the Custodians did something that is alien to their nature, as we know it, but that our test results were corrupted.’

Garnoth turned his attention to the Avatar, ‘Is that possible?’

The machine paused for a moment. ‘I have scanned the ship’s systems, and whilst I cannot exclude the possibility, I can find no evidence of it.’

Its human counterpart pressed the point. ‘How could such a thing be hidden from you?’

‘There is only one explanation,’ the machine replied, ‘the systems would have to be completely reconfigured before we came on board.’

The old glint had returned to Garnoth's eyes. ‘So the pilot may not be as innocent as we thought.’

‘Except,’ interjected his
twin,
‘he did not know he would be in that position. My scans show, when he boarded, it was most unlikely he would be promoted to Squadron Leader. It is more likely that his actions were, as you earlier promulgated, nothing more than a young man seeking to emulate his father. Further, for all we know, he may still have communicated his request to Eclipse, and what was withheld was the reply he received. His sympathies may lie elsewhere, but there is no possibility that he was capable, even with help, of engineering what has transpired.’

‘Make a note for the future, we need to keep an eye on him,’ Garnoth replied, then turning to Tala. ‘Let us assume you are right, and the only involvement is that of the rebels, what are your thoughts on Beron? After all, it was his action that put us where we are now.’

She did not hesitate. ‘I think he genuinely believes the Tellurian female’s death was an accident, and I can’t comment on whether his behaviour was manipulated,’ again, the memory of Garnoth's cruel behaviour towards the Tellurians resurfaced. ‘Then there is the matter of Hugo Black.’

Garnoth nodded. ‘He told Beron he had help,’ his eyes were twinkling with anticipation. ‘It seems, we have two distinct events: the Custodians give an item to the Tellurians, in the hope of frustrating the agreement and; rebellion involvement on board this ship, going far beyond anything we have previously suspected. What level of organisation would be needed to achieve what we have discussed?’ he asked the Avatar.

‘The most likely configuration would be one controlling intelligence, with a team of at least six, some of whom have extensive knowledge of the ship’s systems. It is likely that programs and routines were written months ago, before the present crew were assembled. We cannot exclude the possibility that this was being engineered as soon as the mission was decided, possibly even when the ship was constructed.’

‘Have you any idea how many years ago that was?’ asked a genuinely surprised Garnoth.

‘I shall proceed on the basis your question was rhetorical, as you are fully aware that I know to the second how long ago that was. As
you
know, Garnoth, I cannot be surprised, but I am unable to comprehend why such a possibility comes as a surprise to you. You are also aware that I have long held the view, one or more of the Council are rebellion sympathisers. This plan of yours has been developing over a number of years. Why, for an otherwise astute man, do you choose to ignore the possibility that rebels may have committed as much time and energy to unravelling your scheme, as you have in ensuring its success?’

Garnoth rapidly recovered from the Avatar’s reproach. ‘As ever, you are as charming as that drinks dispenser, but I can see no flaw in you logic. Tala?’

She was content to cast suspicion on the Custodians, after all it was something that would be almost impossible to disprove, whereas involvement of the rebellion created a much more complex set of problems. Standing up, she paced the room, unaware of following the same pattern frequently adopted by her mentor. Totally engrossed in her own thoughts, she similarly failed to notice the look of indulgent amusement on the spymaster’s face. Satisfied she had examined all possibilities, discarding the improbable and plain ludicrous, she was left with only two rational conclusions.
 

‘Either we do nothing, for moulding policy has never been our goal, or we deal with the only factor that is within our power, the rebels. As soon as the bare facts of what happened reach the ears of the Council, the various factions will begin their machinations. By the time we arrive home, their decision will be all but made. We send a brief message that the rebellion sabotaged the mission, but give no details. The message must insist that the information is closely guarded for fear of widespread panic. In this way, they’ll be too concerned with the rumour, to think about what actually happened. This will hopefully give us the time we need to weed out the saboteurs.’
   

Her mentor interrupted, ‘You have gone from being dubious of rebellion involvement, to concluding there is more than one of them involved.’

‘Not dubious, just considering all possibilities, as you taught me,’ she looked at the Avatar. ‘You’re right, what had to be done to unravel our plans was beyond the capability of any single person.’
 

Garnoth’s ample brow knitted. ‘And we have no idea who they are. Where do you suggest we start looking?’

Tala answered, without hesitation. ‘The traitors were either here on the ship, or part of the advance party on Earth…Telluria, I can’t imagine the Custodian sending only two of us back?’

Garnoth ignored the slip, then turned to the Avatar, which needed no prompting. ‘I have ascertained that of the six hundred and thirty operatives present on Telluria at the time of the Custodian’s appearance, four hundred and twenty are on board Eclipse. The only possible conclusion we can draw is that the others were scattered throughout the fleet. It is possible, but most improbable that they were released into space; such an action would contradict everything we now know about the Custodians.’

Garnoth groaned.

Tala had no idea what prompted the old man’s response and, before speaking, sensed that something was amiss. ‘I would normally have assumed that we would make the necessary enquiries of the other two ships, but I would be wrong, wouldn’t I?’

‘I am afraid you would, my dear,’ came the weary reply. ‘At the same time as we were hurled across six thousand parsecs, we lost all contact with the other ships. For the reason our friend here just gave, it is unlikely the Custodian destroyed them, and more likely they were dispatched in a similar fashion to us. I have wondered whether our tormentor preserved the triangle we, in our naïveté, believed would ensure her destruction. If my supposition is correct, then we are not only a very long way from Te’ath, but also from each other. Our subspace communications to the Council will take days to arrive, and we have no idea where to direct our scans, so as to find our comrades.’

Tala’s eyes narrowed. ‘It would seem the Custodians want our return to Te’ath delayed for a reason. If the Council were to hear from another source that the mission had failed, before our communications reach them, we may be unable to dissuade them from making rash decisions. It’s critical we find the traitors as quickly as possible, and communicate the results to Te’ath.’ She turned to the Avatar. ‘Have any of the crew disappeared since the mission began?’

The Avatar looked at its master who, silently nodded. The information was retrieved, almost instantly. ‘None have disappeared, although the Executive Officer was the unfortunate victim of a teleport accident.’
   

Garnoth watched for any telltale signs that this, previously withheld, information might precipitate.
 

Tala eyes widened. ‘An accident?’

The spymaster was inwardly pleased by her surprised reaction.

‘Yes,’ the Avatar replied, ‘I have thoroughly examined the evidence and it was simply that, an accident.’

Tala was reluctant to accept the machine’s findings, but a glance at Garnoth reminded her that he would have also considered the likelihood of other possibilities, and if he was permitting the Avatar to openly state its conclusions, then he was satisfied. She decided it would be unwise to pursue the matter, but made a mental note to revisit the incident when things had calmed down and they had solved their more immediate problem.

‘It is interesting,’ said Garnoth, ‘that you should refer to the Custodians’ desire for delay, because I believe that same desire has given us a key to finding one, or more of the rebels.’

Tala’s brow furrowed. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘Why, my dear, you are the key!’

She looked from smiling spymaster to taciturn automaton, neither providing any clue, then it dawned on her. ‘Why did they keep me from the ship for twenty-four hours? What did they want to keep from us?’

‘Precisely,’ replied Garnoth, ‘what did you notice that the Custodians wanted to keep secret for twenty-four hours?’

Tala was convinced her mentor was wrong. A vivid recollection of Garnoth’s cruelty in the ‘signing room’ played in her mind. She then looked at her hand as she felt the ghost of a sensation, the same sensation she first encountered when she held the Artefact. ‘I wish I knew!’