Steph Bennion - Paw-Prints of the Gods

Yima was first to drift through the ceiling hatch. He winced as his bandaged arm found the handrail before his fingers did, only to receive an unsympathetic sneer from his colleague behind. Ininna flinched at the sight of a tendril slowly uncurling towards her neck. Ravana got the impression the ship’s AI did not relish their presence. Both agents were quick to reveal they were armed with replacement guns.

“Welcome aboard,” said Quirinus, eyeing Ininna carefully. “To what do we owe this pleasure? Do you want a witness report on how you bravely ran away from the spiders?”

“Silence!” snapped Ininna.

Ravana, sat in her co-pilot’s seat, watched as Ininna manoeuvred across to where Kedesh calmly drifted. Artorius sat sullenly in Zotz’s vacated seat, nursing his bandaged hand. The boy was clearly upset; Hestia had done what she could for his broken finger with the ship’s first-aid kit, but Ravana’s attempts to speak to him had only deepened his sulk.

“Marion Kedesh,” spat Ininna. “Why did you not leave Falsafah when we asked? Now I have the tedious job of arresting everyone aboard this heap and taking you all to Aram for interrogation. Have you any idea how much form-filling that involves?”

“Nobody is going anywhere,” Quirinus said roughly. He floated poised behind his pilot’s seat with a hand upon the switch panel for the mining thrusters. “Did you see the rockets strapped to the hull? It wouldn’t take much to fire the release mechanism and shoot the top booster straight through your nice shiny spaceship.”

“You’re bluffing,” growled Yima. His glance went to the switch beneath Quirinus’ fingertips and a flicker of doubt crossed his face. “We don’t want trouble.”

“What do you want?” asked Govannon, his hand on his hat.

“The two Dhusarians we suspect you of shielding are wanted on terrorist charges,” Ininna replied, facing her audience one by one. “Kedesh here is a veritable thorn in our side. We have special orders regarding the boy; and also for you, Ravana O’Brien.”

“Me?” exclaimed Ravana, startled. “What did I do?”

“You are not taking my daughter anywhere!” growled Quirinus.

“Doctor Jones!” cried Xuthus. “Say something! Don’t let them take Ravana!”

“You’re not taking Artorius, either!” retorted Ravana.

“We have been monitoring communications on Falsafah,” Yima told her. “Including the internal camera feeds at Falsafah Alpha. Your scarred little face was matched against one of a party of royalist rebels causing mischief on Yuanshi several months ago. Do you make a habit of sabotaging research stations?”

Kedesh had not yet spoken. Ravana watched as she withdrew a familiar vial of blood from her pocket. Her other hand held the waste cartridge from the cryogenic capsule.

“This is what your superiors want,” Kedesh said, offering both to Ininna. “Artorius and I will play along and come with you, if you let the others go free.”

“No!” Ravana cried. “He’s staying with us.”

“You made Stripy and Nana go away,” muttered Artorius. “I don’t like you anymore.”

Kedesh gave Ravana an apologetic grin. “Rude as ever, I see. Once the Americans hear Que Qiao has him, he’ll be back home safe and sound on Avalon in no time.”

Ravana looked confused. “I don’t understand.”

“You and me both,” grumbled Quirinus.

Ininna motioned to Yima to relieve Kedesh of the vial and cartridge.

“Evidence,” Kedesh told them. “I’m sure you have basic forensic equipment aboard your ship. Get some DNA samples and see what you find.”

“Why the sudden cooperation?” Ininna asked, suspicious. “Is this some kind of trick?”

“No trick. I want you to know the state of play if we’re coming with you to Aram. What happened down there is far bigger than you can possibly imagine.”

“Bigger than an alien temple with huge killer spiders coming out of ground?” scoffed Yima. “Have you done a visual scan of Arallu since you left? There’s hundreds of the damn things, pouring across the desert and dropping like flies. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“They’re dying?” asked Quirinus.

Ininna shrugged. “It seems they do need oxygen, after all.”

Artorius looked at Ininna. “I want to go home,” he said.

“You could come with us,” Ravana suggested gently. “We’re your friends.”

“My friend was Stripy,” he retorted. “You sent him and Nana down a hole.”

“We will look after you,” Ininna said to Artorius. “They’re worried about you back on Avalon. We just need to ask you some questions about the people you were with on Falsafah and then we’ll take you home. Would you like that?”

Artorius nodded. He wriggled free of his seat belt and pulled himself across the cabin to where the agents waited. Yima pocketed the vial, took Artorius’ hand and led him through the roof hatch into the Alf-Sana Booma . Ravana watched Artorius go with tears in her eyes. She did not want him to be angry about the departure of the greys.

“A wise decision,” remarked Ininna. “So he’s important to the Americans?”

“We spoke to Missi, the AI at Falsafah Alpha,” Kedesh told her. “It was obsessed with experiments it had continued to run despite there being no human crew at the station. I guess you know of the eight-legged horrors loose in the nearby valley. When we were in the alien chamber, I saw the cut marks on the body of the dead weaver where someone had removed tissue samples and wondered if there was a connection.”

“Weaver?” asked Ravana, puzzled.

“We did find evidence of a previous dig,” Govannon said. “There was an old oxygen cylinder, see? In an area of recent infill around the entrance.”

“Someone also left a bomb for Professor Cadmus,” piped up Hestia. Ininna responded with a glare, having seemingly forgotten her audience in the crawl tunnel.

“There was an American expedition to Arallu around ten years ago,” said Kedesh and smiled at Govannon’s surprise. “Very hush-hush, if you know what I mean. My guess is that the samples taken from the chamber were Missi’s experiment, in that the giant spiders in the valley are clones grown from the dissected tissue. But Missi also spoke of Artorius when it referred to other experiments. I think something else was taken from the chamber.”

“The cryogenic capsule,” murmured Quirinus. “It was empty.”

“No!” Ravana shivered. “It can’t be true!”

“You tell me,” said Kedesh. “How old is Artorius?”

“He said he was eight,” Ravana said quietly.

Ininna frowned. “You’re saying the boy is a clone? From the body in the capsule?”

“Oh my word,” murmured Govannon.

“Cloning people is illegal,” said Zotz, from the crawl tunnel. Xuthus, Hestia and a dubious Urania were whispering excitedly about their theory that the capsule was from the lost USS Constellation . “Except cyberclones. They’re more like robots.”

“What is it with Dhusarians and clones?” murmured Ravana. The revelation left her feeling uneasy. “How did an American capsule get into the chamber? Are you saying the spiders or the greys somehow brought it to Falsafah through the portal?”

Kedesh shrugged. “It’s possible. Somehow, the Dhusarians got wind of it and decided it fitted with their prophecy. That’s why Jizo called him the star man and said that stuff about ‘frozen traveller created anew’. The Americans have a huge exobiology research centre on Avalon, which could be why Artorius was born and raised in the Alpha Centauri system.”

“It’s incredible,” murmured Quirinus.

“So this has nothing to do with Que Qiao?” asked Ravana.