Yoon Lee - Ninefox Gambit

A message informed her that the Shuos team was ready for transfer. The research facility directed Cheris to meet them at Transfer Point 16. Cheris studied the map, although she knew a servitor would show up to guide them if they got lost. Her augment was curiously silent. “We might as well go now,” she said.

The route to the transfer point was everything Cheris expected from a Nirai station: straight lines and intersections that added up into tangles, like trees grown together in a forest. At least the map was clear, and floating silver lights told them where to go. The pale light picked out the Kel and Nirai emblems, ashhawk and voidmoth, engraved in gold and silver on odd facets of the walls.

Transfer Point 16 was vast. The Shuos were already there, conspicuous in their red-and-gold formal uniforms. Cheris wondered what Jedao looked like in those colors. She recognized Captain Ko mostly by the beard, and the other analysts not at all.

“General,” Ko said, still with that bland politeness. “Might I introduce my team?” He indicated each in turn: Senior Analyst Shuos Veldiadar, a scowling womanform. Analyst Shuos Teng, whose bow was all anxiety. Analyst Shuos Mrai Dhun, a large, sturdy man who wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Kel infantry. Analyst Shuos Liis, who studied Cheris while smiling languidly. She had lavish ripples of dark hair framing a heart-shaped face, and a beautiful mouth, but not a kind one.

“Don’t worry,” Jedao said cynically. “You passed.”

“Passed what?” she asked, using subvocals.

“Tell you later.”

“I look forward to working with you,” Cheris said to the Shuos, because it needed to be said.

“We’re aware of the circumstances of your command,” Ko said. “We’ll do our best to offer the support you need to win the siege.”

“Probably sincere,” Jedao said.

“I don’t suppose you’re familiar with the signifier tests?” Cheris said.

“In relation to the Fortress?” Ko said. “I’ve heard there’s a file, but there’s a lot of documentation only Kel Command or the Fortress’s senior staff would have access to.”

Cheris had expected Jedao to criticize her for asking about the files straight out. Instead, he held his peace.

Shuos Liis was watching her with knowing eyes. Cheris wasn’t immune to the woman’s striking beauty, but she desperately wanted to know what test it was she was passing, and what Jedao knew about Liis.

“How long have you been at your position?” Cheris asked Ko, feeling she should at least get to know him.

“Eight years, General,” he said. “Don’t believe the dramas. We spend most of our time destroying our eyesight reading reports and staring at maps and clocks. I’m surprised we haven’t all turned into mushrooms from the lack of light.”

Interesting comment. “Planet-born?” she said.

“Yes,” he said. “I’ve mostly lived on stations since graduating Shuos Academy, but it’s not the same.”

Cheris could sympathize with that. The City of Ravens Feasting was a port on a small peninsula. During her first year as a cadet, she had sometimes woken listening for the sound of the river, or the birds.

“General,” Liis said. Her eyes were deferential, but her voice was not. “Why the Immolation Fox and not some other weapon?”

“I looked at his record,” Cheris said. She turned away, not wanting to invite further questions.

“Still passing,” Jedao said.

She was starting to wish they had some kind of ability to talk mind-to-mind for occasions like this.

A voice said echoingly, “The cindermoth is prepared to receive you. Please exit using the primary door and go down the hall. A hopper will ferry you to the Unspoken Law .”

“About time,” Mrai Dhun said.

“After you, General,” Ko said, reminding Cheris she was supposed to go first.

Her shadow preceded her through the door and down the hall. She didn’t stumble on the way, but it took a lot of concentration. The hopper waited at the end. It had no name, only a number, but then, she had always liked numbers. The hopper would ordinarily have held a platoon at full strength. The Shuos sat some way behind her, to her relief.

The hopper set off, humming to itself with a voice like barbed wire and bells.

Time for subvocals. “What’s the matter with Shuos Liis?” Cheris demanded, trusting that Jedao could pick out her voice despite the noise.

“She’s been surgically altered.”

“That’s all?” she said. Did Jedao have some hang-up about body modifications? A lot of Kel did, but the Shuos were supposed to be more relaxed about such things.

“I wasn’t specific enough. She’s been surgically altered to resemble Shuos Khiaz, who was heptarch during most of my lifetime.”

“And this is a test?”

“Not for you. For me. If we were more closely linked, you might have shown a particular reaction. She hasn’t gotten the reaction, so that’s a point in your favor.”

He was being awfully vague about – she figured it out. “You did what with a heptarch?”

“Subvocals, please.” His voice was as cold as a knife’s edge. “It’s a reminder, that’s all. I’m a Shuos, but I’m currently Kel property because Heptarch Khiaz signed me over to Kel Command after Hellspin Fortress. Tell me, who’s the current Shuos hexarch?”

“Shuos Mikodez,” Cheris said. Mikodez was notorious for the time he had assassinated two of his own cadets, apparently out of boredom.

“I’m not surprised he’s still in power. He’s very good at what he does. Most Shuos don’t approve of me, but Mikodez really doesn’t approve of me. If I ever slip up – if he ever convinces Kel Command to hand me back to the Shuos – he’ll have me killed. This is a reminder that I need to behave.” He was silent for the rest of the admittedly short trip.

Commander Kel Nerevor received them personally as they debarked from the hopper. She was resplendent in full formal, and her smile had a predatory cast. “General,” she said, almost in a purr. “Captain Shuos.” It was slightly insulting to refer to an officer by omitting his personal name, but Ko’s mild expression didn’t change.

The null banner was prominently in evidence. Cheris felt a spasm of distaste. She reminded herself that she had chosen it, and that disgrace wasn’t far off from her real status, or Jedao’s for that matter.

“Have someone show the Shuos to their quarters,” Cheris said.

Servitors were already waiting to escort the Shuos. On the Unspoken Law they seemed to favor deltaforms with multiple gripping beaks. The Shuos saluted and headed off.

“And yourself?” Commander Nerevor asked.

“I want to see the moth’s command center,” Cheris said. More accurately, she wanted to see how Nerevor had set it up. “Then I’m going to retire to quarters as well. Lead the way, Commander.”

“Of course,” Nerevor said.

The command center was brightly lit and busy with the work of composite marionettes at all stations: Weapons, Communications, Sensors, Engineering, Navigation, and Doctrine. No, she was mistaken. The Doctrine officer was a captain-magistrate seconded from the Rahal, with the wolf’s-head emblem beneath her rank insignia.

“She must be new,” Jedao said. “I paid special attention to the Doctrine officers for the cindermoths and I don’t recognize her.”

Bad news, because Cheris didn’t recognize her either, and had hoped her memory had slipped. On the other hand, it wasn’t surprising the Rahal had placed someone to keep an eye on them. Odds were that the Doctrine officer on Commander Paizan’s cindermoth had been replaced, too. “Captain,” Cheris said, “may I ask your name?”