Timeweb Trilogy Omnibus (33 page)

“You’re the soul of this organization,” the loyal adjutant had said to him on more than one occasion.

Now Noah nodded to Anton and Tesh as they boarded with him. Moments later, the grid-plane rocketed out of its underground bunker, followed by other green-and-brown escape aircraft, at irregular intervals.

* * * * *

On board EcoStation, high in orbit over the planet, Noah reviewed security procedures with Subi and three Guardian officers. After they left his office, he stood at a wide window, gazing down at Canopa below, at the continents and oceans that looked so calm from this distance. Touching a transmitter on his wrist, he activated the magnaview feature of the glax, and it zoomed in on his Ecological Demonstration Project compound. The resolution was so clear that he could see uniformed soldiers hurrying in and out of the vehicles and structures.

His blood boiled, as he thought of all the ecological work that those idiots would trample on, desecrating years of effort. It looked like a military base down there now, with vehicles and aircraft pouring in. And not just those of CorpOne, either, he noticed with a sinking feeling. Doge Lorenzo’s forces were there as well, in their cardinal red uniforms.

Atop the administration building, his green-and-brown flag still fluttered defiantly in a slight breeze. Then he saw it being lowered.

“You asked to see me?” a man said.

Turning, Noah saw the mustachioed Anton Glavine enter the office and stand by the desk, looking nervous and upset. His black trousers were torn, and one of his knees was bloodied.

Noah switched off the viewer. “I have something to say to you,” he began. At a wave of his hand, the office door closed, and he blocked all intercom systems.

“Tesh and I appreciate what you’ve done for us,” Anton said. “OK if I sit down? I injured my leg in a fall.”

“Sure. Go ahead.”

Anton slid into one of three chairs that fronted the desk.

Too agitated to sit, Noah paced back and forth by the window. “I should have told you this earlier,” he said, “but for your sake I thought it was best to hold back the information. I hope you’re not angry with me, because I always had your welfare in mind.”

“I would never question that.” The younger man looked perplexed. His hazel eyes looked straight at Noah.

“I’ve always acted like a big brother to you,” Noah said. “You thought I started out as a friend of your parents, but that isn’t the whole story.” He took a deep breath. “They weren’t really your parents, not birth parents anyway.”

“Sitting straight up, Anton said, “What?”

“You and I are related by blood.”

“You’re not my … father? We are only seventeen years apart.”

He shook his head. “I’m your uncle.”

Stopping the pacing, Noah could see Anton’s mind churning through the possibilities, behind the gaze of his eyes.

“My uncle?” His face contorted. “My mother isn’t Francella? God, I hope not!”

“She is, unfortunately.” Noah folded his arms across his chest. “After you were born, she paid for your care, but never bothered to see you again or even ask about you. I doubt if she even remembers the name of the family that took you in, or your own given name that they provided for you. I’m really sorry, Anton.”

Anger filled the young man’s face. “You should have told me. I’m twenty years old, not a baby.”

“It never seemed like a good time. I wanted to spare you. Now isn’t the greatest time, either, but I don’t feel I can wait any longer. We’re all in danger, and in case something more happens.…” Noah’s eyes misted over, and he choked up.

“OK,” Anton said. He went to his newly discovered uncle, half-smiled. “I know you mean the best.”

“Don’t be too quick to forgive me. I have something more to tell you.”

“Worse than what you already told me?”

“It depends on how you look at it.”

“Well?” Anton stood up, went over to the window by Noah.

“Doge Lorenzo is your father.”

“Now I know you’re kidding.”

“Look at me, boy. Do I look like I’m kidding?” Noah stared hard at him, unblinking.

“Is that all you have to tell me? Or does it get even worse?”

“Lorenzo doesn’t know about you. My sister didn’t want him to know she was pregnant, so she stayed away from him until after you were born, and then said she had been tending to family business matters.”

He looked numb. “I need time to absorb this.”

Noah went on to tell Anton about the military insignias he had seen through the magnaviewer, that Francella and Lorenzo appeared to have combined their forces to attack the compound. They might even be down there together right now.

“I wish they were,” Anton replied, “and that we could drop a bomb on them.” He sulked toward the door, opened it.

Just before he left, Noah said, “Be cautious with the information. Revealing it to anyone could put you at more risk.”

“Everything’s dangerous nowadays,” Anton said, and he closed the door behind him.

Chapter Forty-Seven

No one is ever totally free. Everyone is confined by his own mortality.

—Jacopo Nehr

On the Mutati prison moon of Omo, Giovanni Nehr lamented his situation. He had hoped to get rich by turning the nehrcom secret over to the shapeshifters, but it had not worked out that way at all. In the process, he had also hoped to avenge himself on his smug, overbearing brother Jacopo, but he might never learn if that happened. Gio should not have proceeded without knowing the outcome in advance. In retrospect, he realized that he should have envisioned the possibilities better before committing himself.

Now he toiled in white-hot sunlight, carrying stones from one side of a field to another. Obviously, the work had no purpose whatsoever except to occupy and annoy the prisoners, because there were other men like him moving the stones again, to another place. Back and forth and around and around hundreds of Human men in checkered prison garb went, only occasionally getting water breaks, and then only to drink a brackish, green liquid that looked positively lethal. He swallowed as little of the slimy fluid as possible.

During one of the breaks, he sat cross-legged on a flat rock and struck up a conversation with two young men standing nearby, who identified themselves as Acey Zelk and Dux Hannah. The pair had been discussing the destruction of the planet Mars, wondering how it could have happened. Upon hearing the boys say they’d seen the debris field, Gio asked for more information. They described the horrors of the aftermath, and said some of the onlookers theorized a meteor may have hit the planet.

“Must have been quite a blast,” Gio said.

To Dux, the man didn’t seem very sympathetic. The teenager had heard that Mars was only lightly populated and not on any important commercial routes, but that still meant the loss of hundreds of thousands of people.

For several moments, the three of them gazed off into the distance at shimmering bubbles of air that floated between the moon and the planet Dij, a large ball that looked like it was below the moon.

“Those bubbles are strangely beautiful,” Dux said.

The others agreed, and then Gio expressed his opinion about the uselessness of their labor, just carrying rocks around.

Grinning in a disarming way, Acey said, “Try to see the positive side, friend. We’re getting a good workout, keeping our bodies in shape.”

“Unless this green water gets us,” Dux added, spitting it out and making a face.

“Where are you from?” Gio asked.

“Siriki,” Acey said.

“Ah yes, the world of Princess Meghina. Do you know her?”

“Do we look like her social set?” Acey asked.

“I guess not. I’m from Canopa myself, the most beautiful planet in the galaxy.”

“We’ve seen a lot of worlds,” Dux said to the older man. “Canopa is nice, but not exotic enough for me.”

“Yeah,” Acey agreed. “Too civilized.” He paused, and asked the Canopan, “How did the Mutatis get you?”

Gio grimaced, shook his head. “I’d rather not say. Something dumb I did, dumb and embarrassing.”

“Could say the same for us,” Dux admitted. “We were snared on a Mutati-controlled vacation planet, like insects in a fly trap, they said to us.”

Into the throng of prisoners strutted six guards, fleshy creatures who moved with remarkable speed despite their great girths. The shapeshifters stood in the center, each of them looking in a different direction at the relaxing men.

Without warning, lances of orange fire shot from weapons attached to their wrists, hitting many of the prisoners. “Back to work, you slackers!” they shouted with cruel glee, as the captives cried out in pain and surprise, and jumped in attempts to get out of the way.

On a second burst of fire, Dux was struck in the shoulder, burning through his thin shirt to the skin. Acey was hit on one arm—but both boys refused to cry out. They just moved back into the work detail and did as they were told.

These guards were bored, Dux realized. They had rousted the prisoners from breaks before, but never like this. Previously it had been with shouts, threats, and strange curses, and once they had hurled small, stinging stones at the men. On rare occasions, the Mutati overseers were even pleasant, but Dux came to realize that this was just a sadistic game with them, as they easily shifted back to cruel behavior.

* * * * *

The next time they had a chance to talk, following an evening meal, the two young prisoners and their new friend discussed an escape plan. The moon on which they were incarcerated, in low orbit over Dij, was connected to the Mutati-controlled world by airvators, shimmering capsules of air that rose and descended with passengers inside. From air pressure, they had firm interior walls, floors, and ceilings, but they had no real substance. To observers looking upward, it seemed like the passengers were floating on air bubbles … which, in fact, they were doing. Each airvator was controlled by an operator inside who wore a pressure-regulator, strapped around his torso.

Pursuant to a plan that Dux developed, Acey—who was mechanically inclined—stole one of the regulators and put it on, then generated a pale yellow bubble around them.

“It’s easy to operate,” Acey said. The mechanism made a soft hiss. “Hang on,” he said. “Here we go!”

Looking around, Dux grabbed a railing as they lifted into the air. His companions did the same, and barely in the nick of time, because the capsule flipped over, tossing them around.

“Sorry,” Acey said. He righted the airvator, increased the power, and they went higher into the air.

Dux felt lightness in his feet, the gravity field weakening as they moved farther from the moon.

“I’m turning on artificial gravity now,” Acey said.

Dux felt it kick on, as his feet settled firmly to the deck of the airvator.

“Beyond the moon’s atmosphere now,” Acey reported. “We’re in a narrow band of space between Omo and Dij. In a few moments, we’ll enter the stratosphere of the planet.”

But as they descended toward Dij, Mutati guards in another airvator spotted them and opened fire.

Acey changed course, and inside the enclosure the three of them tried to duck. Projectiles hit their airvator, puncturing the seal and damaging the pressure mechanism.

Acey tried to re-inflate, but they began to lose pressure. and tumbled rapidly. Dux saw a gaping hole on one side of the bubble, an opening that shifted when Gio moved around.

“Stay away from the hole!” Acey yelled. “Watch out!”

Gio lunged at Dux and said, “Careful! You could fall a long way!” He gave Dux a hard push toward the cavity.

Dux was nearly as tall as his attacker, but thinner and less muscular. The older man was stronger, and had the added element of surprise. Still, the youth had wiry strength, and fought desperately to avoid falling to his certain death. He lost his grip on the railing, but tumbled to the other side of the capsule and grabbed hold again.

“Just a mistake,” Gio said. “It wasn’t what it must have looked like. I was just trying to keep my balance, didn’t mean to push you.”

“Like hell,” Dux said.

Acey struggled with the regulator and managed to increase the air pressure, but only a little.

The airvator hurtled downward, spinning.

Suddenly an emergency system went on, and the hole sealed over. The airvator began to descend at a normal speed until it settled onto the ground. As it landed, the mechanism shut down, and the shimmering bubble disappeared entirely, leaving only a wisp of color behind that soon dissipated in the air. The three of them ran from the guards, whose airvator landed moments later. Gio ran in a separate direction from the boys.

Acey and Dux scampered across a storage compound enclosed by energy-field fences. They hurried by a faceless servobot and boarded a small gray ship, slipping into the cargo hold amidst large crates, bags, and barrels. The pair were barely inside when the hatch slid shut behind them, and the craft lifted off.

Peering through a porthole, Dux saw the vessel speeding toward the setting sun on the horizon, skimming over grassy hills and treetops. Acey showed interest in something else, an arched doorway in the forward bulkhead of the hold. He strode through, and disappeared for several moments.

When Dux followed, he found his cousin standing at a control panel on the bridge of the ship, examining the instruments. Glancing back, Acey said, “This thing’s on automatic, a programmed route.”

“To where?”

“Can’t tell.” He tapped a light green screen, said, “This is the destination board, full of numbers and letters. We’re on course for Destination 1-A, wherever that is. My guess is this is a supply ship, and after we deliver cargo there, it keeps going on its route, to other destinations.”

“Too bad we’re so low to the ground,” Dux said. “I’d give
your
right arm for a pod station right now.”

“And I’d give your right eye,” said the other, with a wink and a grin. He glanced out the front window. “Whoa, what’s that?”

Ahead, Dux saw a building that at first appeared to be one-story. As they neared the structure—which was constructed of patterned geometric blocks—he realized it was at least ten stories in height, with huge open doorways and ships inside that look like merchant schooners, even painted the red-and-gold of the Merchant Prince Alliance. Lights began to flicker on as the sun dipped below the horizon.