Charles Sheffield - Transcendence

She stopped speaking. Every eye in her whole black circle of eyes dimmed and seemed to go out of focus at once. Nenda banged her down hard on the floor.

“Don’t you go brain-dead on me again. Spit it out, Kallik. Right now, or I’ll scatter your guts all round the room.”

Kallik shook her head. “I will say it, Master Nenda, as you command. But it is not possible. While I was staring at him, J’merlia vanished. He did not move, for I am faster than he and I would have seen and tracked any movement that he could make. I did not lose consciousness, either, not even for a moment, which was my first thought, because I was in midair, jumping toward him when he vanished. It could not be some trick of reflection, or some peculiar optical effect, because less than a second after he disappeared I stood in the spot where he had stood, and felt the difference in temperature of the floor where his legs had rested.” Kallik slumped down, all her own legs wide. “It was truly he. My friend J’merlia.”

Rebka and Nenda stared at each other.

“She’s not lying, you know,” Nenda muttered. He was talking more to himself than to Hans Rebka.

“I know. That’s what I was afraid of. It would be a lot easier if she were.” Rebka forced himself away from snarling impossibilities and back to things he knew how to handle. “You realize that’s exactly what he said.” He jerked his thumb back toward the sick bay where Julian Graves lay. “According to him, J’merlia was the only one with him on the Erebus .”

“Yeah. But we don’t have to believe that. We can check who’s here. At can sniff the central air supply, an’ if there’s anybody else on the ship she’ll get a trace of ’em. Hold a minute.” Nenda hurried off, back toward the control room.

Neither man needed to spell out the rest: If no one but Graves and J’merlia had been on the ship, then where were Darya and the others? Almost certainly, on Genizee. Which meant that the ascent of the Indulgence had stranded them there.

Hans Rebka did not wait for Nenda’s return. “Bring Master Nenda to the Indulgence as soon as he gets back from the control room,” he said. He did not ask Kallik, who was still splayed on the floor — he commanded her. He hated to treat her as a slave, when he had argued so strongly that she was not; but this was a time, if ever, when the ends justified the means. The Hymenopt simply nodded obedience, and Rebka went hurrying back to the scoutship.

Kallik had done her job in the cargo hold. The Indulgence was waiting, power recharged and command sequences set, ready to return to space. Rebka went to the open hatch. He itched to fly straight out of the hold and back to the surface of Genizee, but first he had to be sure of the situation on board the Erebus .

When Louis Nenda returned he was not alone. Atvar H’sial was right behind him, gliding through the corridors in twenty-meter leaps.

“No worries,” Nenda said, in answer to Rebka’s unasked question. “Kallik’s keeping an eye out on the bridge. She’s actin’ up some ways, but she’ll be okay for a couple of minutes.”

“What does Atvar H’sial say?”

“Agrees with Julian Graves, and with Kallik. Not a sniff of anyone else on board — ’cept for J’merlia. An’ that one’s fading, At says, like he was here an’ then just left. Downright spooky. If I were the worryin’ kind, that’d be heavy on my mind.” Nenda had moved past Rebka through the open hatch of the Indulgence , and was examining the controls. “You ready, then?”

“Ready?”

“Ready to head back down to Genizee.”

“I am. But you’re not going.”

“You wanna bet on it? I’m goin’, or you got a big fight on your hands.”

Rebka opened his mouth to protest and then changed his mind. If Nenda wanted danger, why stop him? He was a liar and self-serving crook, but he was also an extra brain and an extra pair of hands — and he was a proven survivor. “Fine. Get in, and hurry up. We’re going now.”

But the Karelian human was glancing over his shoulder to the hulking figure of Atvar H’sial, poised behind Hans Rebka at the hatch. “Uh-oh. Get set for takeoff, Captain, but before we go I gotta have a quick word with At there an’ tell her what’s what.”

“Louis Nenda.” The Cecropian’s pheromonal message was strong as he approached her, the overtones full of suspicion and possible reproach. “I can read you clearly. We are safe in space, but you propose to return to the planet Genizee. Explain your actions… or lose a partner.”

“ Explain . There’s nothin’ needs explainin’,” Nenda came close to the Cecropian and crouched under her dark-red body case. “Be reasonable, At. Rebka’s goin’, you see that, whether I do or not. We know there’s all sorts of goodies down there, an’ we know he’s too dumb to take ’em even if he gets the chance. Somebody has to go with him, see what can be had.”

“Then I will go, too.”

“You wanna leave Kallik an’ Graves in charge, without two ounces of sense between ’em? Somebody has to stay here an’ keep things rollin’ smooth.”

“Then you can stay. I will go, in your place.”

“Don’t be crazy. You and Rebka can’t say one word that the other understands. I hafta go.”

“It is the human female, Darya Lang. You seek to succor her.”

“Succor! No way . I don’t know the meaning of the word. At, you’re gettin’ a real obsession about that woman.”

“One of us surely is.”

“Well, it ain’t me.” Nenda bobbed out from beneath the carapace and started into the hatch. “At, you just gotta trust me.”

The Cecropian moved slowly out of the way. “I see little choice. However, I have conditions. We have waited too long, and deviated far from our original objectives. I want a promise from you, Louis Nenda, here and now: that if I remain we will, as soon as possible after your return from Genizee, take possession of this ship for our own use. A safe path out of the Torvil Anfract is easy, according to Dulcimer — it is only the entry that is difficult and perilous. So you and I will leave the Erebus in this ship and return to Glister, where we will find your own ship, the Have-It-All . We have procrastinated long enough.”

“Hey, I miss the Have-It-All as much as you do — more. You got a deal. Soon as I get back, we go.”

“Just the two of us.”

“Who else? Sure, just the two of us. Go pack your bags. I gotta be on my way, Rebka’s all ready an’ waitin’.” He cut off pheromonal transmission to show that the conversation was over, and hurried back inside the Indulgence .

Hans Rebka was indeed waiting — but not for Louis Nenda. He was sitting at the controls and reentering an initializing sequence. His face showed total frustration. Nenda dropped into the seat next to him.

“What’s the holdup? Let’s get outa here.”

“I’d love to. If that would let me.” Rebka nodded to one of the displays. “I’m trying to open the connecting door to the outer hold. But the command set is being ignored.”

“It shows the outer door won’t cycle. That means the lock’s in use.”

“I know what it means — but that lock was empty when we came in through it.” Rebka was switching to a camera that should provide a view of the lock area. “So how could it be in use now?”

Louis Nenda did not need to attempt an answer. While they watched, the air-pump sequence had ended. The outer lock now possessed a balancing atmosphere with the inner hold, and the door between the chambers could at last slide open. Both men stared at the scene shown on the displays.