Thieves of Light

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Since they were dependent on the Dracona shuttle for their return to Intellistar, Bhodi and Parcival were the last to report in. They found that the rest of the expedition and even their own gear had already been transported up to the Ninth Platoon's carrier. Zephyr. The blunt-nosed twin-tailed star fighter was in a high geosynchronous parking orbit around Rejia-as Bhodi learned, one jewel in a glittery necklace ringing the planet.

"I thought our ship'd be here at the docks," Bhodi said as they checked in at the transport station's touchpoint.

"There's not enough room down here for all of the platoon carriers and couriers and scouts," Parcival said, accepting the travel orders offered up by the station-keeper. "But there's more than twelve hundred slots up there, a quarter of a degree apart."

There was a minor backlog at the outbound transporter, and they took their place in line. "You have that many ships?"

"Some of them are the primary defense platforms, some are decoys. But there's two or three hundred other ships up there at any given time," Parcival said. "All the armed ships, like our Zephyr, are part of the secondary station defense. You didn't think the Arrians were leaving us alone here out of courtesy, did you?"

"No-"

"You should see what it looks like when the First Guardian calls a scramble drill and a hundred or so ships all fire up out of orbit in the span of a few minutes." Parcival turned to the transport engineer. "Two for the Zephyr. She's in slot 914."

"Happy hunting," said the engineer, saluting as they moved past him into the chamber. "May the Light shine."

When the blue cocoon faded, they were aboard the Zephyr, standing amidships at an intersection of two passageways. Parcival stepped forward and slapped the intercom bar on the nearest wall.

"Tech Spec Parcival Pike, reporting in," he said, then moved aside to make room for Bhodi.

Bhodi hesitated for a moment, then reached out and pressed the bar. "Combat aide Bhodi Li, reporting in."

The answering voice was Li-hon's. "About time, you two," he said impatiently. "Come forward to the bridge."

When they reached the triangular bridge, similar to but larger than that on Fraanic, Bhodi learned that the full platoon had not been assigned to the sortie. Tivia and Lord Baethan had been called that morning to back up a force fighting on a planet called Marchia, leaving only Parcival, Pike and Li-hon available.

I wonder if that's why they brought me along, Bhodi thought. Pinch-hitter for the Ego Twins. Except they can't expect me to fill both their shoes. Why did they bring me? What's a combat aide do, anyway?

Even without a full platoon, Zephyr was carrying a full load. Unlike on Fraanic, there was a crew of three, wearing smoke-colored uniforms and manning the bridge stations. Though Li-hon was clearly the final authority on board ship, it was the Riknoid Li-hon called Captain Yier who took Zephyr out of orbit and set her on course for the Cavalon system.

"We can't be everywhere at once," Parcival explained later. "We need someone to fight the ship while we're doing our job on the planet. Captain Yier's a good one- he's been the Ninth's carrier pilot for almost fifteen cycles."

Also aboard was a squad of what Li-hon called the Regulars and Bhodi came to think of as the junior varsity. They wore identical pale-blue light-armor fighting suits with the spectral disk emblem of the Alliance on the sleeve, carried Brackes and Allisons, but wore no Guardian's rings. Bhodi had not known such a force even existed.

"Is that an option for me, if I don't make it into the Guardians?" he asked Parcival.

"No", was the answer. "They're selected and trained by their own planetary governments, not by the First Guardian. Occasionally a Regular is allowed to challenge for the Ring, but we don't send them our rejects."

According to Parcival, the Regulars performed the sort of support roles that would otherwise have divided the platoon's strength or consumed its time unproductively- security, sentinel duty, mop-up operations.

"Most of the time it's the Regulars who escort crystal teams," Parcival said. "In equal numbers, they're no match for the Arrians. And you sure wouldn't ask them to go after the Warn on their own turf. But they do a good job of backing us up. You might say we're the offense and the Regulars are the defense."

Clearly, like Zephyr's crew, the Regulars were considered part of the team, an extension of the platoon. If there had been any doubt of that in Bhodi's mind, it was dispelled when both Captain Yier and Corporal Mlas, commander of the Regulars, were included in the sortie briefing Li-hon conducted when Zephyr was barely an hour out of Rejia.

The briefing was held in a compartment on the lower deck, with the six participants seated around a battle board. "This sortie is a rescue-and-retrieve for the courier Majestic," Li-hon told them. "She was carrying a crystal team and a phalanx of Regulars on a six-stop seeding mission in the Kalath sector. Majestic made her in-system report at Cavalon and hasn't been heard from since. Ditto her escort, the sloop I'olhlm."

"How many crystals was she carrying?" Parcival asked.

"Three. Cavalon was the fourth stop, which means that she was carrying three prime crystals when she hit the system."

"No alternate?" Parcival pursued.

"No. The prime failed on their second stop and they needed to use it."

"Cavalon is awfully deep into our zone for this to be the Arrians," Yier commented.

"I'd like to think so, but it's hard to imagine any other reason. Two ships going silent means four transmitters have to fail all at once, or some accident has to take both ships out simultaneously. Pretty long odds on that."

"One in sixty-three million on the transmitters alone," Parcival said.

"Li-hon's right," Pike said. "It's pretty gutty of them to come in that far, but it has to be the Arrians. The killer is that we're not going to find them hanging around when we get there."

"It has all the signs of a snatch-and-run," Li-hon agreed. "There's been no evidence of any warren-building in the Kalath sector since we pushed them out eight cycles back. I hate to say it, but we're probably looking at two toasters and a lot of bodies to pick up-"

"They like to wait until the team is on the ground, then fry the escort," Parcival whispered, leaning close. "Then they crack the courier open in orbit, take the crystals, and skip-"

The whisper was either too long or too loud to pass notice. "Problem, Parcival?" Li-hon interrupted.

Parcival straightened up on his stool. "Just putting Bhodi in the picture."

"He can speak, can't he? If he's got a question, he'll ask it."

"Yes, sir," Parcival said sheepishly.

"As I was saying, about the most we can hope for is that some of the ground team is still alive. But if by chance the crystals are still around, we're going to go after them."

Pike shook his head in disgust. "Won't happen, curse the dark. We're gonna be late to the dance."

"There's always a chance l'olhlm got in a few licks before she went down," Li-hon said. "In any case, we're going on standard battle prep as of the end of this briefing- combat diet and power sleep. Captain Yier will get us to Cavalon late tomorrow."

"Twenty-half ship time," Yier amended.

Li-hon nodded. "Any questions?"

Bhodi raised his hand. "I've got one. What's my role?"

Captain Yier snickered, and Pike studiously avoided looking in Bhodi's direction. "Your role is to do what you're asked, when you're asked, to the best of your ability," Li-hon answered.

"Can't you give me some idea what that's likely to include?"

"No."

"I'm not asking for promises. You had my Allison and armor picked up and brought along. I figure that means something."

"Less than you think," said Li-hon.

"I just want to know what to expect."

"Expect the worst," Mlas said in a clipped tone. "That way you're never surprised. And picking up bodies is about as bad as it comes. I'd rather wrestle a Warri." He pushed back from the battle board and stood. "Permission to withdraw, sergeant? I'll pass the word to my people."

"Granted. Any more questions?" Li-hon asked, his gaze sweeping around the circle. "If not, get. I don't want to see any of you until Captain Yier sounds the entry alarm tomorrow afternoon."

Twenty minutes after the alarm sounded, the members of the Ninth came together on Zephyr's bridge to look on as the ship entered the six-planet Cavalon system.

The two outermost worlds were cold, pale-colored hydrogen-helium balls. Zephyr's trajectory took it within two light-minutes of the outermost, designated Wegn- six-in the standard numbering system. Tracked by the ship's long-range viewers, Wegn slipped by to starboard like some gaseous ghost in the eternal night.

Ahead lay four small terrestrial worlds clustered close to the orange dwarf star itself. To Bhodi's surprise, their destination was Ehl, the closest in. He had thought that, like Mercury in his home system, Ehl would be too fiercely hot to accommodate life.

But all Ehl needed to become more hospitable was an improvement on its thin, oxygen- and water-poor atmosphere. So Ehl's crystal had been programmed to create an atmosphere that would screen Cavalon's harshest rays and restore the geochemical cycles which had been interrupted long ago.

"Cavalon went through an active period about 1.8 billion years ago," Parcival told Bhodi. "It boiled off most of the lighter gases and virtually all of the surface water. This was a really promising place for life at one time."

"It isn't now," Bhodi said, studying the even more detailed image appearing on the forward window. Ehl was brown and desolate, its face pockmarked and creased, a forbidding world.

"Sensors are picking up no sign of the courier in orbit," Captain Yier reported.

That news seemed to trouble Li-hon. "Have you begun surface scans?"

"Forty percent complete. No sign-wait. High reflectance anomaly on the surface. Coordinates fifteen-mark-six lateral, twenty-eight-mark-two polar."

" I'olhlm," Pike said.

"Maybe," said Li-hon.

"Getting some residual Photon radiation now off the same site," one of the other crewmen announced. "Forty-six-fifty-fifty-four count. Confirming, profile matches a leaking fractional drive power unit."

"What mass?" asked Parcival.

"Uh-looks like a four-mass."

Parcival turned to Li-hon. "Then that's not Volhlm. That has to be the Majestic." But there was puzzlement in his voice, not the excitement of discovery. "What's she doing on the surface? Couriers aren't dustbellies."

"You've got two choices," Pike observed. "Either they crashed, or they crash-landed."

No one wanted to choose an answer. But as they fell into orbit above the spot where the anomaly rested, the high-res scanners picked out a triangular silver hull resting half in the shadow of a granite cliff.

"I thought for sure it'd be scattered in little pieces across the landscape," Pike said, shaking his head. "She looks like she's in pretty good shape, considering. Maybe we're dealing with an accident after all."

"Maybe." Li-hon addressed Parcival, who was peering over the shoulder of the ship's sensor technician. "Can we pop down to her, or do we have to fly?"

"I'm not picking up any recognition code from Majestic's transporter."

"Are you getting anything coherent?"

"No. She's radio-dead."

"Okay." He turned to Captain Yier. "I'm going to take the platoon down in landing pod A. I want Mlas and six of his Regulars standing by in B with full medpacks, ready to come down as soon as we give the all-clear."

Then he turned back to the others. "Full battle gear, everyone. Atmosphere's not much to chew on down there- Parcival, Bhodi, you'll need the bubbles. Pike, you can get by with a breather. Move! I want you in the pod in five minutes. There may be people hurting down there."

Ehl was even more forbidding up close than from orbit-a desolate landscape of weathered scarps and granite block mountains linked by desertlike expanses. The wind was blowing constantly, but the air was so thin that it could do little more than kick up dust devils and whistle in the bubble helmet's external microphones.

The surroundings made the wreck of the Majestic look even more forlorn and forsaken than it otherwise would have. Its presence was of no consequence whatsoever to the planet, like a burr on the shaggy coat of a golden retriever. The courier's descent and death had gone completely unnoticed.

As the pod descended toward the fault valley in which the hulk rested, Bhodi and the other passengers could see that Majestic must have come in at low speed and reason-ably under control. The great hull rested tail-high and tipped to starboard, both angles dictated by the irregular shape of the ship's underbelly and which parts of the superstructure had collapsed under the unusual stress.

Li-hon landed the cylindrical pod a cautious 200 meters away from the ship. Then he turned to Parcival and asked, "Any activity out there?"

Parcival consulted the pod's sensors, then his own wrist-mounted black box. "Nothing showing."

"Okay. Bhodi, stay with the pod-"

"But-" Bhodi cut off his own protest. He had nothing to gain by jerking at the traces.

Li-hon seemed not to notice Bhodi had spoken at all. "Parcival, set up an alarm on the sensors on Bhodi's frequency. I want him outside as a sentry, not locked up in here staring at dials and gauges."

"Done," said Parcival.

Bhodi came outside with them and stood watching as they started toward the massive spaceship. The sight reminded Bhodi of a photo in his freshman science text. The photo had showed a freighter resting high and dry in a field after being pushed ashore by a tsunami-a jarring clash of context.

Then duty called, and he began walking his beat-a slow circuit of the pod, scanning the surrounding walls of rock. While he walked, he eavesdropped on the radio traffic. There were three circuits in the battlefield com loop: a general-use circuit called the omni, a receiver-selectable circuit called the whisper, and Li-hon's priority-override command circuit. Most of the traffic was on the omni.

"A hell of a job of piloting."

"The D section's all caved in-I hope everybody was out of those cabins."

"I don't see any reason yet why the core pressure hull can't be intact."

"Look-underneath, around the port cylinder intake. She burned, at least for a while."

"Probably on impact-"

They were near enough to Majestic to be lost in her shadow when Parcival called out, "Is that a body?"

"Sure is-sweet Light, the poor thing's all torn up. Didn't they have enough sense to brace and strap in?"

"Bhodi?" It was Li-hon, on the command circuit.

"Yes, sir," Bhodi said eagerly.

"Anything on the activity board?"

"Just you three."

"All right. The external recon shows crash damage, scorching, one casualty. The site looks clean, but we're going to go slow. I'm posting Parcival outside here. Pike and I are going inside to check the crystal vault and look for other bodies. Call up to Captain Yier and tell him to send the Regulars down."

Bhodi did as he was asked, disappointed that he was not being asked to do more. When Captain Yier signed off, Bhodi switched from the omni to whisper mode. "Parcival?"

"What's up?"

"Any sign yet what brought the ship down?"

"Nothing obvious."

"She wasn't shot down?"

"If she had been, she'd be in a lot more pieces."

"What do you think happened?"

"Well-couriers aren't dustbellies, like I said. But neither are the Arr galleons. Captain Lasdree must have been trying to run to the only place he thought he had a chance of saving either the crystals or his people."

"Any sign he managed either?"

"Not yet. Look, I'm going to do a walkaround. Can you watch the front door from there?"

"Sure."

Switching back to the omni circuit, Bhodi watched as Parcival's diminutive form disappeared around the rear quarter of the ship. A minute passed.

"Sergeant!" Parcival shouted suddenly.

"Yes, Parcival."

"I've got a faint life reading in there. Looks like we've got at least one survivor."

"All right. We're getting close to the vault. We'll finish that and then try to track down that life reading. Bhodi?"

"Still all clear."

"Keep your eyes open. Don't rely on the sensors completely."

"Understood."

For almost two minutes-an infinity of time under the circumstances-the radio was silent. Bhodi caught an occasional glimpse of Parcival picking his way along under the belly of the courier, but other than that Bhodi might have been alone on the barren, windswept valley floor.

"We're at the vault," Li-hon said finally. "It's closed and intact. Opening her up now."

"Wait a minute," Parcival said, his voice quavery.

"What?"

"I'm looking at the other side. All this damage wasn't done in the crash. These holes are burned from the outside in. Half a sec-sergeant, there's something odd about that life reading-"

Almost without thinking, Bhodi began to take tentative steps in the direction of the wreck. Then from Pike came a frantic cry: "Look out!"

Bhodi did not wait to hear more. He took off at a run toward Majestic, his Allison in hand, the pod open and undefended behind him. The sound of phaser fire reached him faintly through the helmet mikes. Then came the words that chilled him like ice pressed to the middle of his back.

"Bhodi!" Li-hon cried. "Full alert! The ship's dirty! The vault's full of Dogs!"