L Modesitt - Empress of Eternity

I'll take care of it. Is there anything there for you…or that you need?

No. Thank you. I'm working on something else. The link blanked.

Duhyle packed away the score of innocent-looking circular lumps of biotherm so they wouldn?t dehydrate. The detonators would have to wait.

By the time he was out on the stone to the south of the station, the first airship had arrived and trailed disembarking lines. The black cylindrical craft hovered ten yards above the ground, its bulbously asymmetrical nose pointed into the wind out of the northeast, its dark and nonreflective solar-film finish soaking in every possible photon for the four engines and ship?s systems. Security troopers slid down the lines. The soft and almost swampy ground to the south of the canal muffled the sound of their boots hitting the surface.

Duhyle could not see the cargo-sailer from where he watched the troopers leaving the lower airship. But above him and to the south, the second airship had taken station to monitor the Skadira.

Large as the two airships looked, at more than one hundred yards in length, Duhyle had earlier checked the specs. He?d found the payload to be something around twenty-five tonnes. The average security trooper, with full gear, weighed in at around 130 kilos. Theoretically, the airship could easily have carried two companies, yet each only carried half a company. That should have left mass for heavy equipment as well. Or did the payload refer to the entire gondola and crew?

He couldn?t tell from the airship specs.

After the troopers came the pallets of food, ammunition, and other supplies, lowered on cables and quickly detached by the troopers on the ground. Given how organized the troopers were, Duhyle just stood by, in case there was something else that needed to be done.

A lanky security captain, in one of the shimmering security singlesuits that changed shades depending on the environment and the needs of the troopers, trotted toward Subcaptain Symra.

Duhyle couldn?t make out what the two women said, but almost immediately about half of the first troopers moved toward the cliffs to the west and took up positions overlooking the ocean.

In minutes, the remaining troopers from the first airship were on the ground and had carried and stacked the cargo pallets on the stone of the canal wall next to the station. Then they turned and trotted toward the cliffs to join the first contingent. The first craft lifted, the engines whining gently as the airship circled skyward to cover the other ship. The second airship made a circling descent and deployed disembarking lines. The second half of the security company scrambled down the lines, following the same procedures as had the previous troopers.

In minutes, all but ten security troopers were in position on the cliffs. The ten stood in a relaxed line before Symra.

"Tech Duhyle, here, will show you where all the supplies will be stored." After a brief hesitation, Symra added, "The station is effectively proof against any known form of explosive. Its one drawback is that access cannot be blocked, except by troops with weapons."

Duhyle thought quickly, then nodded, stepping forward. "The pallets with ammunition need to be stored in the main room just inside the south doorway. Put them against the wall."

One of the troopers looked pointedly at the featureless stone wall of the station.

Duhyle smiled. "There is a door. I?ll show you."

He turned to move toward the point where the door was, but was spared that by the fact that the stone opened, and Helkyria stepped out into the weak sunlight.

"Right there." Duhyle gestured. "If it closes, just press your hand against the stone at the side. It won?t close if you?re in the doorway. The ration stores can go below inside in a secondary storeroom. I?ll show you."

"You heard the tech," came the voice from a senior ranker at one end of the ten.

"Hyldgard…you and Bhriony…"

Before heading into the station, Duhyle glanced back and skyward. The two airships climbed on a southeast course. He looked at Symra. "They?re leaving? Already?"

"They?re too vulnerable," Symra pointed out.

"Hardened air transports have historically been a waste of resources," added Helkyria from behind them.

Waste of resources? For whom? Duhyle neither spoke nor comm-pulsed that thought. Instead he walked toward the station door.

In a quarter hour, every item that had been on the pallets was stacked inside the station, and Duhyle reemerged into the afternoon sunlight. He strode toward Symra and Helkyria.

"…have to wait to see what they do."

"…makes me uneasy, ser," replied the subcaptain.

"It makes us all uneasy, but the Aesyr haven?t done anything that could be construed as unlawful or inciting violence. We might as well take a closer look at what they?re up to."

Helkyria turned and began to walk westward toward the end of the wall.

"No one?s firing." Duhyle took several quick steps to catch up.

"Not yet," added Symra from behind them.

When the three reached the ocean wall, Duhyle immediately looked for the cargo-sailer. From what he could tell the Skadira stood slightly farther off the cliffs and the narrow beach below them, but he did not see any wake.

"She?s easing away," suggested the subcaptain.

The Skadira slowly moved southward, then more toward the southwest under engine power, since the sails remained furled.

"The deck?s vacant," mused Symra. "Those boats are as far away as they?ve been all day."

Duhyle could barely make out the four sea-canoes, so far south had they traveled, and there were no kite-sailers anywhere in sight.

A long whining scream ended with a brilliant gout of fire, flaring from where the cargo-sailer had been instants before.

Debris flew in all directions, with pieces raining into the ocean wall of the canal-a good fifty yards below where Duhyle stood, open-mouthed.

"Frig!" exclaimed Symra. "I thought-"

"That wasn?t SatCom. The Aesyr did it themselves. They?ve got a sky-eye somewhere. They?ll beam the images worldwide and claim it was an unprovoked attack by the government," observed Helkyria. "Tell the security company captain to be ready for an attack, Subcaptain. I need to inform Vaena and SecCon." She turned and ran toward the station.

Symra sprinted toward the rear of the troops arrayed along the top of the cliffs, although Duhyle caught no comm pulses.

Without contrary instructions, Duhyle decided to follow Helkyria.

Maertyn did not sleep well. But then, he hadn?t slept all that well in Caelaarn for years, and certainly not since Maarlyna?s illness. After breakfast, he finished dressing, choosing a silver-trimmed green jacket with maroon cuffs, designed to deflect shocker bolts and resist projectiles. Then he made his way to the garage and the small personal vehicle retained at the town house, both for Maertyn?s use when he was there, or for Rhesten when Maertyn was not.

The building that held the Ministry of Science was to the north and west of the greenbelt that Maertyn?s town home overlooked, less than a ten-minute drive. Once there, without incident, Maertyn pulled into the open-topped area that allowed solar recharging, if into a space reserved for those of his Ministry position and higher, where he stepped out and locked the vehicle. He carried only a thin portfolio. Most of what he had to say was in his head and not in any set of records, except at the canal station.

The distance from the car park across the narrow bridge to the entry walk was less than a hundred yards, and when Maertyn stepped through the outer doors of the Ministry building, he saw two guards in the dark green and black of Unity Protective Services, but behind the security console. When he?d left, there had been no guards stationed in the building.