Jeffrey Carver - Eternity's End

The Cloud of a Thousand Suns.

The Well of Stars.

“YZ/I, I already told him about the fleet,” Tracy-Ace said, with an edge of impatience in her voice.

“Is hearing the same as seeing?” boomed a voice that seemed to come from the deeps of space where the pirate fleet was hurtling. The image of the fleet rotated until it seemed that the ships were flying straight toward Legroeder. The holo blinked off, and Yankee-Zulu/Ivan was standing there as a man again. He stuck the cigar back in his mouth.

Behind him, Lanyard looked annoyed. “Do you really think it’s wise to show him that, as if it’s your personal toy?”

YZ/I shrugged. “What’s he going to do with it, Lanyard? He’s here, with us. Anyway, he’s going to have to know that we’re serious—and why. Is that okay with you, Rigger Legroeder?”

Legroeder, unsure what to say, jerked his head toward the monitors, where the image remained. “Is that where the fleet is headed? The Well of Stars?”

“That’s right.” YZ/I’s voice grew deeper. “It’s the biggest colonizing fleet in the history of the human race! And it’s going to be launched within the year!” His lips suddenly curled into what at first looked like a sneer, then seemed to be a wince of pain. “ If we can solve a few little problems.” He stroked his lips as though to rub away the previous expression. “What do you think of it, Rigger Legroeder?”

What Legroeder thought was that he was having trouble breathing. It was a magnificent fleet. Setting out to populate the galaxy with pirates. It would be a really fine thing if he could think of a way to stop it. But how?

YZ/I was still waiting for an answer. Legroeder moistened his lips, then asked, “Why did you show that to me? Were you thinking I might want to join up?”

YZ/I stared at him for a moment with those glowing eyes—and suddenly broke into a long, iron-hard guffaw. “No, Rigger Legroeder, I didn’t really think you’d want to join up. Not after your experience at Barbados—or should I say, your seven years of captivity at DeNoble .” Legroeder froze in sudden terror. YZ/I’s eyes gleamed. “DeNoble. What a goddamn scum-pit of humanity. To think they’re part of our Republic.”

Legroeder felt paralyzed like an icecat in a spotlight.

“And you’re mad as hell about it,” YZ/I continued sourly, “and you’ve come to see what you can do to try to wipe us all out for good. Do I have it right?” He puffed smoke in a stream toward the ceiling, where a vent fan seemed to push it back downward rather than draw it away.

Legroeder struggled to draw a breath. How did YZ/I know about him and DeNoble? What else did he know? He closed his eyes to a squint, focusing inward in fury. (Did you betray that information—when I was with Tracy-Ace—?)

// We did not. We carefully monitored the passage of information. //

(Then—) He blinked his eyes open.

Tracy-Ace was touching his arm. He glared at her in silent indignation. He was afraid to think… didn’t want to ask… or to admit…

Do you feel bad because you lied to her and then made love to her… or because you got caught?

He got his breath back at last, but felt her gaze burning back at him.

“Oh, for chrissake, Legroeder, don’t try to deny it,” YZ/I said.

Legroeder jerked his eyes back to the Boss.

“Legroeder,” Tracy-Ace murmured in a strained voice, “I’ve known all along. We’ve known.”

He jerked his eyes back to her. The world was tilting under him. How could you have known? But Tracy-Ace had already turned to YZ/I, her implants flaring. “Did you have to drop it on him like that?”

Legroeder slowly followed her gaze, and saw that the man had ripples of light flickering up in waves from his feet to the top of his head. YZ/I shrugged. “He can take it.” He glanced at Lanyard, and in a voice that seemed calculatedly casual, continued, “Rigger Legroeder, there are a great many things that we know—things on the outside, in the Centrist Worlds. But you must not assume that we are like those who held you captive at DeNoble. We’re not.”

Aren’t you? Legroeder felt his face stinging with humiliation. His cover was gone, had never been there in the first place.

But YZ/I wasn’t gloating over the revelation. Instead, he was turning to speak to Lanyard. “I believe you had another appointment, Group Coordinator? Don’t let us keep you.”

Lanyard stiffened ever so slightly. “I think, given the circumstances, that it’s probably more important that I hear—”

“What’s important ,” YZ/I interrupted, “is that we conclude these sensitive discussions in private, for now.”

Lanyard’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Don’t try to shut us out, YZ/I. If you go too far along this course, you might find—”

“I promise to give you and the Cabinet a full report,” YZ/I said soothingly. “I assure you, we will not go too far along this or any other course. But just now… well, I’m sure you understand. Rigger Legroeder is on the spot—and he doesn’t need to hear about our internal concerns. Compre-hendo?”

For a moment, it looked as if Lanyard would argue further. Whatever went between them did so in silence. Lanyard closed his eyes, and a line of augments flickered on his earlobes. Abruptly, he blinked his eyes open, nodded brusquely, and strode away.

As soon as he was gone, a privacy forcefield shimmered into place, enclosing the three of them. YZ/I laughed quietly. “I wouldn’t laugh too hard,” said Tracy-Ace, with a distinctly unhappy look on her face. “He could cause us trouble.”

“Well, you’d know that about him, wouldn’t you?” YZ/I said with a little chuckle, causing her face to darken even further. “No, Lanyard is okay; he’s just fond of poking his nose where it doesn’t belong. We’re going to have to be careful of that.” YZ/I paused, then said to Legroeder as if they had not been interrupted, “Rigger Legroeder, Tracy-Ace/Alfa did not betray you to me.”

Legroeder stirred, filing the Lanyard encounter away. “Then who did?”

YZ/I rubbed his jaw. “If you must know, I’m the one who told her . We’ve known from the beginning about your escape from DeNoble. For Rings’ sake, we brought you here. We have things to discuss with you.”

“What do you mean you brought —”

YZ/I waved a hand in the air. “Our contacts with the Narseil indicated an interest in communication.”

The underground . Legroeder swallowed, not speaking.

“We had things to talk about—but we couldn’t be too obvious about it.” YZ/I nodded to Tracy-Ace. “We have appearances to maintain. Very important. Power structures and so on.”

Lanyard. The Ruling Cabinet.

“But you sent out… I mean, your ship tried to destroy us,” Legroeder protested. “Destroy the Narseil.”

YZ/I’s breath hissed between his teeth. “That idiot, Te’Gunderlach. If he hadn’t been killed in the fight, I’d do it myself. He was ordered to find you. Capture you. Not kill you. That’s why Freem’n Deutsch was programmed to—”

“Deutsch? Programmed?”

“Must you interrupt? It didn’t work. Deutsch was supposed to get a priority override if the captain got carried away.” YZ/I shook his head. “Damn augments are probably what drove Te’Gunderlach berserk, and by then Deutsch’s override was too little, too late. Fortunately, you made it here nevertheless—so everything worked out—”

“Not for the dead people we left behind,” Legroeder interrupted.

“That is true,” YZ/I said flatly. “I do not like losing ships or crew.”