The Zygan Emprise: Renegade Paladins and Abyssal Redemption (24 page)

Chapter 17

Madai

Orion Alpha, Orion—present day

As soon as we were settled in our rooms,
Lykkos and Spud left to explore the town. The sun had already set,
and the streets of the city were almost deserted. Izmalis liked to
hibernate when darkness fell. Based on my experience with my older
siblings, I figured the local university might be a place where we
could find some activity going on during the dark hours, as well as
some information about unusual experiments with radioactive
materials.

My brother John had been a graduate student
in astrophysics before he’d left us on his … last mission. He’d
often spend night after night doing research at the University of
Maryland on the campus synchrotron, the sub-atomic particle
accelerator at the College Park campus.

I remembered one night George had gone to
pick John up and I’d tagged along. By two in the morning in the
middle of the week, it was even quiet on Fraternity Row. If you
were at the synchrotron building, however, you’d think it was Grand
Central Station; filled with people making lots of noise, watching
video screens under bright fluorescent lights.

I was only eleven, so I didn’t really
understand what they were doing. (As if I do now, physics uploads
notwithstanding.) I guess I must’ve gotten bored and fallen asleep.
I just remember waking up to complete silence. For a moment, all
the people in the control room had stopped making all that noise.
Their eyes were frozen on the TV monitors. Then, the chatter
started up again even louder and I slipped back to dreamland. John
seemed so excited on the ride home. Obviously, something important
must have happened, but it never occurred to me to ask for an
explanation. Maybe I was just mad that after that night, he started
to spend more and more time on his research, and less and less time
with us. Six years later, I still don’t know what John was hoping
to discover.

“Daralfanoo,” Setsei interjected.

“What?” I looked at him, confused.

“The University,” he looked at his Ergal
screen again. “I think that’s how you pronounce it.
Daralfanoo.”

“Noon,” said Suthsi, looking over Setsei’s
shoulder. “There’s a ‘noo’ on the end.”

“That’s what I said,” whined Setsei.

“Great, great,” I added quickly.
“Daralfa-whatever. Metrics and let’s go.” If those two started
fussing again, we’d never get anything done.

* * *

Daralfanoon University was an imposing
structure of over three hundred storeys in Base 12. And, since each
storey had to not only have room for two-foot Madaians, but
two-hundred-foot Oresteians, the tip of the spire was well in the
chartreuse clouds. Nephil Stratum would feel right at home on the
top floors, I surmised.

I was right about the university; unlike the
desolate streets outside, Daralfanoon at that hour was filled with
beings, many of whom, I was somewhat surprised to see, were not
native to Orion.

“I had an opportunity to study here, you
know,” Suthsi whispered. “They have an outstanding training program
in temporal manipulation.”

“You’re too good at that already,” Setsei
accused.

“Shh,” I whispered. “Will you two stop it?!
We’re here on business.” And they call
me
immature.

We waited over thirty minutes for
our authorization to enter the building. Rifling through a
holodisplay to pass the time, I was surprised to find out that
Daralfanoon had a synchrotron, a particle accelerator, too. The
synchrotron building at Maryland had taken up a half-acre on the
green campus, but, based on the display information, this
university apparently had one the size of a breadbox on its
fifty-sixth floor. I don’t know how big a breadbox really is
either, but it looked in the holo to be about size of a discount
twelve-pack of frozen mini-pizzas.

We took a high speed elevator up to the
synchrotron location. The doors opened to reveal an enormous domed
chamber, brightly lit, and totally empty. We stepped out and the
lift doors closed behind us.

“Welcome to the Synchrodome,” a deep voice
boomed. We turned to see a pink pentapod, a five-legged insectoid
that looked like a giant grasshopper with a limp, holding a box of
not-mini-pizzas in three of his limbs.

My jaw dropped. The box looked eerily similar
to the one Gary had clutched so tightly before he died, although a
bit larger.

“I am your guide, Pylos of Nestor. I
understand you wished to see the Synchrotron,” the pentapod
continued.

We nodded. “Could we see it in action?” I
asked, excited.

The Nestorian shrugged. “It is.” Experiments
with the synchrotron had produced enough power to supply half the
planet, the pentapod explained proudly as he held up the machine.
The energy released with the acceleration of only one particle had
fed the power grid for all of Madai for the past year.

“That’s a lot of juice,” whistled Setsei. “We
have not been so successful onYtra.”

Nor on Earth, I thought. John and his
colleagues had spent over a day on just one relatively weak
synchrotron run at Maryland to produce one neutrino. Benedict could
probably go quite far into the branes with this technology in his
tank. With this technology, no wonder Orion Alpha was so
attractive.

I tried to sound casual. “Can … anybody … use
this … synchrotron?”

The Nestorian laughed. “No. There
is
paperwork.”

“That goes without saying.” This
is
Orion Alpha.

“But,” the pentapod continued, “unless you’re
on the ‘no-try’ list, you’ll probably eventually get cleared.”

I nodded soberly, trying to stifle a giggle.
Was the pentapod related to Sarion? “Benedict’s probably on the
‘no-try’ list, I’d bet,” I returned lightly.

I expected either laughter or discomfort. I
didn’t expect the pentapod and the synchrotron to disappear in a
flash. The three of us stood alone in an empty chamber looking at
each other in astonishment.

“I think we should get out of here,” Suthsi
said quietly.

I nodded and we headed for the lifts. But,
before we reached the doors, they, too, had disappeared, to be
replaced by smooth, impenetrable walls. The entire room now had no
visible means of exit at all.

“Ergal,” I said, “and damn the bureaucracy.”
We clicked our Ergals to no avail. The chamber obviously had an
E-shield. We were still trapped inside the dome.

I looked at the Ytrans helplessly and
silently mouthed the word, “Geryon.”

Setsei nodded and mega’ed his Geryon,
scraping its sharp point against the wall in the general direction
of the elevators.

To our relief, the original wall and the
elevator doors reappeared. We summoned the lift and, nonchalantly
entered it when it arrived. I didn’t breathe until the doors had
closed and we were on our way down. Or not. No, the lift was not
going down. It jerked to one side and then shot up so rapidly that
we were tossed roughly onto the turquoise carpet lining its floor.
In barely a second, we had arrived at the pinnacle of the spire
above the clouds.

Stun guns Ergaled, drawn, and ready, we
waited for someone to open the door.

Chapter 18

From Bad to Ursa

There were many things I expected might greet
us on the other side of the lift door, but Agriarctos the Ursan was
not one of them. And yet, there he was, towering over us with his
paws open to welcome us to the spire’s penthouse. Susthi cowered
behind me and Setsei shakily held his stun gun in one of his right
hands and his Geryon in the other.

I had one chance. I leapt for the lift
controls, hoping I could close the door and return our elevator to
the building entrance. Who wants to bet that it worked?

“Really, all that isn’t necessary,” the Ursan
growled at us, not very convincingly. “Plionarctos, please lighten
their burdens.”

The second Ursan stunned us with his gun, and
one by one, relieved each of us of our Ergal and our weapons. He
then grumbled something in Ursan to Agriarctos, who shook his head
and advised him to unstun us and lead us into the penthouse
suite.

The night sky was a spectacular panorama of
stars that twinkled through the transparent windows of the spire. I
felt as if I was in a glider surfing over the fluffy clouds, and I
paused for a few moments to admire the breathtaking view.

Plionarctos shoved me forward roughly, and I
stumbled for a second. It took all my willpower to keep from
spinning around and assaulting him in the—well, that and my memory
of what had happened with Agriarctos on the Ursan ship a few days
before.

We practically floated down a hallway decked
with a lush indigo carpet that I’m convinced had anti-grav
properties, and finally entered a small room with a comfortable
chair in its center. In the chair sat a trim man—human, I
believe—with red hair and a warm smile.

“Burr,” said Agriarctos, pointing at the
human.

“Okay,” I responded non-committally.

“They don’t know who I am,” the human said
gently. “I prefer to keep a low profile.”

“Benedict’s #2,” Plionarctos barked.

The Ytrans froze. I simply said, “Ah. I
thought Gary was.”

Burr chuckled. “Gary wasn’t even in the top
five.” He Ergaled us chairs and invited us to sit and relax.
“Agriarctos has told me all about you.”

The Ytrans continued to stand, clutching each
other for support. I sat down opposite Burr, who looked at me with
narrowed eyes. “So. Why did you ask the Nestorian if Benedict had
used the Synchrotron?”

I shrugged. “No particular reason. Just an
off-hand question.”

Burr nodded, and Plionarctos aimed one of our
stun guns at the Ytrans. The redhead continued, “Sorry. I didn’t
hear your answer.”

I squinted at the gun. Yup, it was set to
kill. Setsei remained frozen, and Suthsi’s shivering intensified. I
took a deep breath. Maybe I should try the truth … “Gary clued us
in to what you all were planning. He offered us a stake, Burr. I
was just doing a little back-up research to see if he was on the
level.” Or not.

Burr frowned for a moment. He eyed me warily.
“Gary never said anything to me about that …”

“He didn’t have time,” I admitted, my eyes
welling up with crocodile tears. “The Omega Archon’s catascopes
fried him.” A sprinkle of truth there…

Burr sat up, shaken. “Gary’s dead?”

I nodded, looking down as a tear rolled down
my cheek. That move had gotten me my first part as an actor. For a
moment, Burr looked truly disturbed.

Then the angry tone quickly returned. “Why
haven’t they come after you?”

My eyes met Burr’s. “I figured I could be
more useful if I didn’t blow my cover. So they don’t know about me
yet. They think it ended with Gary,” I added for emphasis.

Clearing my throat, I leaned back in my
chair. “You know my agenda. A piece of your action. Now what’s
yours?”

Burr’s smile was insincere as he said with a
hint of sarcasm. “To overthrow His Highness, of course.”

“What a shock,” I responded in kind. “Thanks,
then. I’ll let him know the next time I see him.”

Burr’s chuckle caught in his throat as I
added, shaking my head, “It hasn’t worked yet, you know. Even the
synchrotrons don’t have enough energy to make the crossing.”

Sober, Burr folded his hands and said
nothing.

“But, I’m sure that’s not a surprise,” I
continued. “There are Trapezalnitaks all over this constellation
from your earlier attempts. You need the Somalderis.”

Burr allowed himself a smile. “And if we do
…?”

“Well, that’s where I can help.”

His astonishment was clear. “Really,” he
finally responded as he waved Plionarctos to aim the stun gun at my
head. “Good. Then just tell us where we can find it.”

I shrugged my shoulders and, continued to
bluff. “Oh dear, I do so wish I could. But, you see, Gary warned me
about you, so, on my orders, the Somalderis was hidden by my
mercenaries, even from me. My men see that the Ytrans and I return
safe and sound, fifty million in credits richer, and you’ve bought
the Somalderis. If not, no Somalderis—and, just like Gary,
you’ve
bought the farm.”

Burr studied me intently as I confidently met
his gaze. Finally, he sighed and pulled up his holo display.
“Krøneckðr account?”

“Of course.” I stood up, as if to leave, and
gave him the numbers I remembered Carlton Platt had used for Wart’s
secret bank account, praying that the account had not been closed
after Wart’s arrest.

There was a noticeable delay, and my anxiety
grew as Burr continued to enter data. Finally, to my relief, the
redhead laughed. “Well done. The money is almost yours. I’ll
release the escrow as soon as I get the Somalderis.”

“Not that I’m not trusting,” Burr added as he
waved a hand towards the lift doors, “but you won’t mind if we keep
your Ergals and weapons until you’re safely out of range, of
course.”
I shook my head. “Be my guest.” Then, to the Ytrans I said, “Come
on, let’s go get Mr. Burr his Somalderis.” They looked at me, even
more alarmed than before.

The lift doors opened as we approached. “Come
on,” I said intently, pulling them towards the elevator.

“No!” Agriarctos shouted. “Don’t!”

I paused at the threshold, my back to the
others. Snapping my fingers, I said, “Darn. Guess you’re right.
Three hundred storeys is a big drop. Especially without an Ergal.
And you took ours, didn’t you?”

Suddenly, I clutched my abdomen with both
hands and bent over, my face painfully contorted. As the Ytrans
approached me, concerned, I flashed them a warning look and then
spun around, launching myself from the carpet towards Burr’s chair.
I levved into a double flip and landed on my feet right behind him,
aiming a stun gun directly at his head.