Timothy Zahn - Judgment at Proteus

“Nothing like a really good group project to draw people together,” I commented to Riijkhan as we walked along the left-hand branch of the tunnel. “Are you really all here? Or was that just a ploy to egg me into calling Fayr down on you?”

“Of course we’re all here,” he said. “This is the culmination of our dreams.”

“Ah,” I said. “Besides which, with your Proteus base gone and the rest of the Filiaelian Assembly hunting you like fresh game, this is as good a place as any to lie low?”

He didn’t answer. Fifty meters later, we reached the door.

It was considerably bigger than any of us, taller and wider, implying it was probably a cargo or vehicle hatchway. There were eight small openings set into the hull on either side, evenly spaced from eye level to waist level. Some of them were covered with metal mesh, while others were little more than deep, irregular-edged dimples in the metal.

There was no handle, keyhole, touchpad, or anything else that suggested an opening mechanism. Or at least nothing recognizable as such. “There,” Riijkhan said, jabbing a finger at it. “And your first hour is now half over.”

Under normal circumstances, I would have stalled for a while, just to make it look good. But I was pretty sure Riijkhan meant what he said about the hourly executions. “Was that a collection of artifacts I saw back there?” I asked.

“It was.”

“Have someone bring me one of everything,” I said. “I think I can have this open for you in a few minutes.”

Riijkhan’s eyes flicked to Morse, who turned and headed back toward the artifact alcove. “We’ve already tried each of them in each of the openings,” he warned. “None of them is a key.”

“I know,” I said. “While we wait, how about giving us a peek at your plans? Since you’re going to kill all of us anyway, you really have nothing to lose.”

“We may not kill you ,” Riijkhan said. “I still hope to find a way to persuade you to our side. If we do, Bayta will naturally also live.”

“As a guarantee of my cooperation.”

“Yes,” Riijkhan said. “As to the others, we’ll soon see if we need any of them to help control this ship. Those who aren’t needed, as you say, will be eliminated.”

“I thought you didn’t like wasting troops.”

“I don’t,” Riijkhan said. “But your demonstration earlier has also reminded me that it’s dangerous to be overdependent on slaves.”

“Seems to me that leaves you between the proverbial rock and hard place,” I said. “Unless you expect more Shonkla-raa to rise spontaneously from the ground, your current crowd is pretty much it.”

“Not from the ground.” He tapped the metal hull beside us. “From here. Once the ship is activated and freed from its nest, we will have the necessary time, resources, and freedom of movement to re-create the Kuzyatru Station facilities that were destroyed by the traitor Emikai. Once we’re fully operational, we’ll send word back to the Assembly. From there, thousands of Filiaelians will rise up and join us, eager to take back what was once ours.”

“Impressive,” I murmured. “Hitler would be proud.”

“Who?”

I shook my head. “Never mind.”

Morse returned, a tray of artifacts in his hands. Among them, as I’d hoped, were a Lynx, a Viper, and a Hawk, the three components of the ancient Shonkla-raa trinary weapon. “Good,” I said briskly. “Bring them here, and let’s see what we’ve got.”

Morse started forward, then abruptly stopped. “A moment,” Riijkhan said, eyeing me closely. “Modhri: are any of these devices weapons?”

I held my breath. But Riijkhan had phrased the question just loosely enough. “No,” Morse said.

Riijkhan nodded, and Morse started forward.

And again stopped. “Can any combination form a weapon?” Riijkhan added.

Morse seemed to wilt a little. “Yes.”

Riijkhan eyed me, his blaze darkening. “Fine,” I said with a sigh. “I just need the Viper.”

“What is it?” Riijkhan asked suspiciously. “What does it do?”

“It’s a power source,” I explained. “I don’t think the door’s locked. I think it’s just not powered up.”

“And you can do that from out here?”

“I don’t know,” I said with strained patience. “Give me the Viper, and we’ll find out together.”

Riijkhan whinnied a snort. But Morse had, after all, already confirmed that none of the artifacts by itself was a weapon. At Riijkhan’s silent command he set the tray down, picked out the Viper from the collection, and walked over to me.

I took it from him, an eerie feeling creeping up my back. The Viper was a power source, just as I’d told Riijkhan.

What I hadn’t told him was that under the proper circumstances it could also explode violently. Circumstances that included an injured, pain-racked, or highly stressed Modhri.

Which meant that I held the final solution in my hands.

It wasn’t a pleasant solution. Certainly not the one I would have chosen. But it was the best we were going to get. Normally, a Viper explosion was reasonably contained, but here inside a tunnel system I guessed it had a fair chance of bringing the whole wall of rock down on top of the working Shonkla-raa. If it managed to also take out the command-tone transmission station, Hardin’s team back in the compound would suddenly be freed from Shonkla-raa control. If they were able to take out the remaining Fillies fast enough, and if Riijkhan was telling the truth about the entire Shonkla-raa contingent being here, we could eliminate the threat right here and now.

All it would cost would be Morse, McMicking, Bayta, and me. Heavy collateral damage, indeed.

But the only other choice was capitulation.

I braced myself. “Okay,” I said to Riijkhan. “I need you to release the Modhri.”

Riijkhan’s blaze darkened. “Why?”

“Because this gadget was apparently designed and intended for Modhran use,” I told him. “It therefore needs the Modhri to telepathically activate it.”

“Very well,” Riijkhan said. “I will give the order.”

I locked eyes with Morse and gave a little nod. He couldn’t nod back, but in his eyes I could see that he and the Modhri understood. He took the Viper and slid its irregular end into the opening that matched its shape. Stepping close to Bayta, I surreptitiously took her hand.

And with a grinding like sand in teeth, the door began to move, backing away ponderously into the hull. It receded about a meter, until the inner edge of the hull itself was visible. Then, just as ponderously, the door moved sideways, sliding into a pocket to the side and revealing a faintly lit corridor beyond. For a moment there was a small breeze as the air pressures between the ship and the tunnel equalized, and I caught the scent of dust and lubricants and old metal.

The door stopped, the breeze faded away, and Morse pulled the Viper from the receptacle.

And we were still alive. All of us.

I looked at Morse. Surely he’d understood what I’d been telling him to do with the Viper. He gazed back, his eyes trapped inside a body that was no longer his.

And with a sinking feeling, I understood.

Riijkhan had called it, way back on the super-express. The Modhri wasn’t on my side. Not anymore.

I took a deep breath. “There you go,” I murmured to Riijkhan, gesturing to the opening. “Help yourself.”

Riijkhan drew himself up, murmuring something under his breath in Fili, and beckoned to one of the Shonkla-raa who’d come running up at the sound of the door’s opening. {Inform the herders to gather the slaves and bring them here,} he ordered.

{The Humans only?} the other Shonkla-raa asked.