The Dragon Never Sleeps

— 87 —

Lupo left the update feeling melancholy. Times were quiet. Tregesser Prime, Tregesser Horata, and the Pylon had been tamed. Likewise the Valerena Others and the Directorate, despite the Worgemuth and Maserang murders. The killer's testimony had exonerated Valerena.

Five Valerena Others survived. The most reliable was ensconced atop the Pylon. Valerena herself spent all her time aboard "her" Guardship.

Blessed had taken over his mother's castle and seemed content to bide his time. He amused himself with absurd theme parties and expanding the alien zoo he had begun collecting. He was scraping them out of every DownTown in the Presidency. He had gathered another four Ku, to Lupo's certain knowledge.

Putting together his team. Maybe riding the wave of the future. There were few competent, imaginative, innovative, uncommitted humans around.

The renovation of VI Adjutrix was going well. Valerena had the damned thing eating out of her hand.

Week after week, month after month. Routine.

Which left time for the old game of Guardship watching.

Something big was taking shape. Starbase traffic was heavy. To his dismay, XII Fulminata had been seen coming out. VII Gemina's survival he could accept. But XII Fulminata had been destroyed. He had tapes.

At least three Guardships were operating beyond the Atlantean Rim, for the first time in millennia, in the direction whence Simon had drawn support. Unsettling.

There were reports of armed Travelers roaming the Web in VII Gemina's name. An unprecedented tactic. That word had killed the shadow side of commerce. It spoke of ships destroyed and stations savaged by Guardship soldiers.

What were they after?

Two stepped in. "An armed Traveler broke off the Web a while ago. It's ordered us to turn over the cumulative ship's logs for the Voyager Marion Tregesser. It invoked the name of VII Gemina as its right. It also wants Blessed, Cable Shike, and Nyo Bofoku."

Lupo let the shock subside. "Why?"

"Call Blessed and ask him."

Turtle shared a barrackslike room with five Ku who had survived the Dire Radiant and the ages since. Such a pathetic few. But there were more out there, and word was spreading.

He did not know if he would become the thing Blessed wanted. He told himself he was going through the motions to protect Midnight and Amber Soul. But, oh, the aching temptation.

As if Amber Soul needed protection from anyone but herself.

It was one incident after another, never her fault because she initiated nothing, always her fault because misunderstanding could be avoided if she would unbend and adapt.

Something dramatic and grim had happened within her. Even he could not reach her anymore.

Turtle led his Ku in ritualized exercises as old as the warrior ghifu. An ensign of the Dire Radiant graced one wall. Someone had drawn it in colored chalks. Turtle had not bothered to have the wall cleaned.

Midnight scurried in. "Turtle! You've got to come! It's Amber Soul!"

"What has she done now?"

"She's gone into a trance. She just stands there sending, ‘He's here. The Old One is here.' The walls and ceiling have gotten all creepy. I think she's going to have an attack."

"I'll be right back," Turtle told his companions.

Tina looked troubled. "What's the matter?" Blessed asked.

"There's a call. Lupo Provik. I don't like the way he looks. If it was anybody else, I'd say he was scared shitless."

"What does he want?"

"You."

"I can take a hint." He punched the baroque comm that had belonged to his mother. "Lupo. What can I do for you?"

"Tell me what you've been up to. We've got an armed Traveler in, acting for VII Gemina. It wants the logs for Marion Tregesser. And it wants you, Shike, and Nyo Bofoku. All couched in the usual lyrical ‘Do it or your ass is dead' Guardship style."

Blessed said, "Shit!" He looked at Tina, then at Cable, whom she had summoned. They had gone colorless. "Lupo, not on comm. Stall. You want to come out here or you want me to come there?"

"Here. That'll put you closer to the shuttle. Don't forget Bofoku and Shike."

Blessed said, "Shit!" again.

Cable said, "I couldn't have missed anything."

"It couldn't have been much. It took them eight months. Tina, get Nyo. Guys, I want to hear brains at work."

"We can throw ourselves on our swords," Cable said.

"It may come to that."

"I wasn't joking."

Sixteen kilometers off station Jo said, "This's the busiest we've hit."

Vadja said, "Home station for House Tregesser. One of the big ten Houses. One of the contrariest. They've never accepted a Canon presence."

Seeker stepped into Jo's head. The Lost Child. She is here. I sense her pain.

Vadja exploded, "There's a Guardship here! There's something wrong with it."

"Where?" Haget asked.

Jo told Haget what she had heard from Seeker.

The Deified, reviewing pirated data faster than Vadja, located the Guardship. "VI Adjutrix. Has been exploring the Web beyond the Rims for several centuries. Behavior here suggests regression to preadolescence. In past instances, this has resulted from failure in the Core closures, inviting infection. Take me to VI Adjutrix. I will enter the system and assume control."

Haget looked bewildered.

Jo said, "We have a mission here, Colonel."

"Where is this Guardship?"

The Deified said, "Having realized it was irresponsible and a hazard, it inserted itself into a slow cometary orbit. It is above the orbit of the innermost gas giant at an elevation of ten degrees, bearing three one three relative. At optimum acceleration it will take..."

Jo closed the Deified out. He had decided to rewrite the mission orders. "Colonel, we have the Lost Child confirmed as on-planet. The Ku and artifact are likely to be there. We don't want to give anyone time to disappear."

Haget fidgeted. The Deified said, "Drop the Lieutenant off."

"By myself?"

Haget calculated. "Take Seeker and three soldiers. And AnyKaat."

"Thanks." Haget missed her sarcasm. She beckoned Seeker and AnyKaat, selected the three reluctant volunteers. In the passageway, she said, "You're right, AnyKaat. He's a total dipshit."

Jo and the soldiers left the Traveler in full battle dress with complete combat kit. She figured the intimidation factor would be all she had going.

Two told Lupo, "They're sending a team of six to make arrests. I assigned them a House shuttle. They've added those creatures of Blessed's to their list."

"Only six? Confident, aren't they. Blessed better have a hell of a story."

"It gets better. The Traveler is headed for VI Adjutrix."

Valerena went into a state of nerves the moment she heard about the Traveler. Now it was headed her way. She was near panic.

Tawn was no better. He was sure he would lose her, was sure this meant his end as a corporeal being.

Valerena told him, "We can go hide Outside. They'll never find us there."

A minute later VI Adjutrix began moving inward, accelerating as only a Guardship could.

Lupo was aghast.

Blessed was maybe three-quarters through his story and already Provik was ready to shriek in exasperation. Blessed held in his hands the secrets of Starbase and had kept them to himself. Valerena had a Guardship that, with the Ku's knowledge, could have penetrated Starbase.

Imagine that. The invincible fortress in Tregesser hands.

The opportunity of four millennia squandered. Unless he could snatch it back from these VII Gemina predators.

Two came in looking grimmer than ever. "Hot news from beyond the sky, Lupo. Valerena blew the Traveler away and headed for the Web."

The news nets got it before it could be squelched. Jo heard it aboard the shuttle. She ignored the material about the Guardship's past misdeeds. One thought rang in her mind: Rogue!

She told the others, "When we hit ground, we form a square. AnyKaat, you and Seeker stay in the middle."

"Degas is gone," AnyKaat breathed. "And Era. Like that. It doesn't seem real. Is it real, Jo?"

Jo comforted her the best she could. "Only for a while. You're all on record at Starbase."

"It wouldn't be the same. It would be like having his ghost."

Jo knew that. She had been through it. "There's a way around that, too. If you want it bad enough."

"Here's an idea," Blessed said. "We open a window and see how far we can walk on air."

Lupo muttered, "That might be appropriate. But we have our obligations to the House."