Mary Rosenblum - Horizons

Xai and Tania hung in hammocks beside them in the tiny cabin.

As if Tania felt her gaze, she released the webbing and pulled herself around to face Ahni.

Ahni closed her eyes, summoning control. When she opened them, Tania floated in front of her, a handful of centimeters away. The familiar scents of ginger and coconut made her shiver.

“I wish you had listened to me,” Tania said sadly. “Why did you have to get mixed up with this?”

“I don’t understand.” She looked beyond Tania, found Xai grinning at her. “How did you get involved in this? You’re no Gaiist.”

”No, but we do share some goals.” His grin broadened. “I told you our father is never going to see me as anything but a spare part, and as long as he functions, I’ll sit on the shelf. I’ve been keeping an eye on the bio-tech research–the stuff that doesn’t come out in the media. The high-end private labs are on the verge of a breakthrough, Little Sister. By making use of stem cell implantation and a little genen retrofitting, you can replace worn out parts and keep those telomeres from measuring out the end of days. Within a decade, our esteemed father will have the option of living forever. I suspect he will embrace that option.” Xai’s grin had the look of a tiger’s hungry snarl. “What does that mean for the spare part on the shelf, Little Sister? Do you have an answer for that?”

“Do you have to have it all, Xai?” Ahni looked away. “Never mind. You do. You are your father, after all.”

“Yes.” Xai’s smile was pleasant, but the red churn of his emotions was not. “And let me tell you how I will get it.”

“Not from dropping a rock onto Earth,” She hooked her fingers through the cargo netting, her body language distressed, but feeling for the fastener that held the net, for a hint of weakness that would give if she braced against the wall and really pushed.

“Oh, yes. Just so, dropping a rock.” Xai chuckled. “Li Zhen made a nice ally. Talk about someone blinded by his own ambitions.” He laughed outright.”Tania introduced me to the Gaiists. You never reealized she was my lover, did you?” He grinned. “I thought not. Our mother had no problems with that arrangement.” He looked over at Tania and grinned.”The Gaiists are as power hungry as I am but it’s a big planet. They had already laid the groundwork to fear the Platforms and NYUp’s little riots brought the media in to spread the word. Now we will confirm that fear, and in the meantime destroy the World Council.” His grin broadened. “So many obstacles will be simply… removed. Even when the rock is discovered, no one will expect it to have a target. And by the time the exact trajectory is plottted, it will be too late to entirely evacuate the population of the Council Island. Our father is there. So is Li Zhen’s. I am not sure he would approve of this, but it is never wise to share the entire picture. That is best kept to oneself. In the ensuing chaos, the Gaaists are positioned to claim a very large share of political and economic power courtesy of the anti-space backlash.”

He looked like a shark about to take a belly-bite from a fat tuna.

“With the Huang money and machinery behind me, and with our mother’s help, I will be able to assume a leading role in the power vacuum left by Li Zhen’s father. She has been quietly laying the groundwork for this takeover. Li Zhen will be assassinated by a tourist crazy with grief. So he won’t be a problem.”

Our mother. Ice filled her. “I think you are wrong, Little Brother,” she said softly. “I do not think our mother will share with you.” Or anyone.

“Don’t worry about that.” Xai bared his teeth. An alarm chimed.

“Ah, rescue has arrived.” Xai scanned the icons. “I wondered if you had managed to warn anyone before we neutralized you. Or perhaps someone was watching from Dragon Home. Care to watch?” A holoimage formed against the curve of the hull, stars against blackness, the huge curve of nearby Dragon Home with its clusters of solar collectors and communication mirrors. A bright swarm of fireflies glittered against that matte black bulk, resolving slowly into a half dozen tiny oval shapes, gleaming silver and white.

Rock jocks. Just large enough for the single pilot, they picked up the system alerts and either vaporized or removed the floating trash or small rocks that threatened the Platforms and the in-system traffic. The little scooters converged on the tug like a swarm of bees in the holo image, veering off suddenly.

“Either somebody warned ’em or they saw me blow the miner.” Xai was smiling gently.”They underestimate. Ah.”

The scooters exploded in an expanding wave of small bright, brief suns. In seconds, the holo showed nothing but a scatter of fine glitter as bits of the machinery caught the sun’s light.

Ahni looked away, sickened by the creamy satisfaction on her brother’s face. In an instant she was swept back to a hot, humid afternoon before the season’s first monsoon. She had come upon her brother squatting at the edge of the tide pools, watching a fish flop out its life on the hot rocks. He had flicked it into the water as soon as he had seen her, but she remembered his expression in the instant before he heard her.

“There are some very nasty little booby traps out in the Belt.” Xai chuckled. “That’s not a nice place, is it, miner? You can stop pretending to be unconscious. The hibernation drug in the pod is very precisely calibrated to wear off when the unit is opened.”

”We found your blood in that private cabin where you were supposed to have been kidnapped.” Ahni looked at her brother cold with horror. “It was your blood, your skin on the ropes. The forensics people said you had been beaten.”

“Oh yes.” Xai grinned. “Can’t fool a forensic sweep. I was there. I paid one of my better operatives to play the role of interrogator.” Xai’s grin was cold as ice. “He enjoyed it a little too much. But I suppose that added a bit of verisimilitude.”

“Someone was in that personal shuttle… when it blew.”

“That was him.” Xai’s grin widened. “He didn’t even suspect it when I put my hand on his shoulder. I woke him up once I had him strapped into the pilot seat, just used a local motor-blocker to keep him from messing things up. I told him just what was going to happen. If he hadn’t had so much fun, I’d have let him sleep through it.” Xai laughed softly, his perfect teeth just showing. “But instead he got to sit there and count the minutes and know about all that plastic stashed in the tail. I put a beacon on him, so I could listen to him.” He licked his lips.

Ahni turned away, her belly twisted with nausea. Realized Tania was looking at her with amused pity.

Rage rose up in her like lava and she wrestled it down.

“We’ll be entering atmosphere in fifteen minutes.” Tania waved at a shimmer of holographic data readouts floating in front of her, scattering the icons into glittering dust.

“That’s when we bail and leave you to your fate.” Xai chuckled.

“When you develop a good method, don’t change it. You’ll get a nice ride… until the tug melts down in reentry. You know, there’s a slight chance that the rock might actually impact whole.”

”Who’s staying behind to bring it down on the Council’s head?” Kyros opened his eyes. “I thought that was part of your plan?”

“We don’t need to stay for that.” Xai shrugged. “Auto control will take it in on target.”

“Who’s your expert?” Kyros sneered. “Auto won’t last that long.”

Ahni caught a flicker of emotion from Tania.

”You’re staying, Xai.” Ahni didn’t look at Tania, but her skin crawled at Tania’s response. “Didn’t Tania tell you? You’re going to ride it in.”