Dark Space - Marianne de Pierres [91]
‘Why do they do that?’
‘Cryptobiosis is used to survive extremes of temperature and other conditions.’
‘Then what is the sweet stink?’
‘I’ve been trying to remember. I think it has something to do with the alteration of their body fluids. In cryptobiosis the water in their bodies is replaced by glycerol and sugars. It protects their membranes. Usually, though, they would enter hibernation if conditions were very dry. Somehow that has been reversed . . .’
‘By someone.’
‘Si.’
‘What of their social habits?’
‘Their culture, as we discussed, is based on reproduction and survival.’
Rast snorted. ‘Do they take orders?’
‘Perhaps. I’m not sure about their organisational hierarchy, though I believe it is possible to communicate with them. OLOSS has attempted to do so. I do recall one other thing. After hibernation they are voraciously hungry and hostile—depending on how long their hibernation has been.’
‘So someone has bought them here and released them in their most aggressive form. I wonder,’ said Rast, staring through the fence, ‘who that might be.’
Mira clasped her arms around herself, holding tight to the guilty weight of her conscience.
* * * *
That evening Rast called a town meeting in the piazza to set up a maintenance turnaround to keep the TerVs ready to move. She also insisted that all available weapons should be stockpiled and distributed according to the duty-watch roster. Though, on the face of it, the miners and farmers agreed, Cass told Mira that many of them had other weapons hidden.
They stood together at the edge of the crowd, among the women and ‘bini. The segregation had occurred naturally as if the women sought comfort in each other as they listened to some of the men lobby to attack the Saqr.
Rast’s mercenaries prowled through the crowd, fully armed, while she talked the aggressive faction down. Mira wondered how long she could restrain them.
Rast sought Mira out again after the meeting ‘I want you on a maintenance shift. You’ve got engineering knowledge.’
‘Theoretical,’ Mira countered.
The mercenary gave her a withering stare. ‘Your theoretical aristo manner will likely get you strangled in this climate, Baronessa.’
Mira’s heart quickened and she instinctively stepped backwards.
Her reaction set Rast guffawing. ‘That stiff little act of yours is getting brittle, Fedor.’ She made a snapping noise with her tongue as she strode off.
‘Rast is attracted to you,’ said Cass. ‘Maybe we can use that.’
* * * *
We? Mira pondered what that meant as she walked back alone to the dormitory. Cass had met a man and moved in with him. Her Thomaas was a scrawny, unsmiling person who owned a gume close to the dorm. Was that the ‘we’ she spoke of?
‘Someone digging your grave?’ Mesquite was outside in the dark with her hood off, smoking. The nightwinds whipped the smoke straight up into the sky where Tiesha was already waning. Semantic would rise later.
‘What do you mean?’ Mira found the woman’s forthright manner disconcerting.
Mesquite moved casually closer to her. ‘Cass Mulravey’s fratella has been outside, watching for you. I saw him, though he has been hiding across the way,’ she whispered.
Mira couldn’t stop herself peering into the dark.
‘You need to learn how to protect yourself, Baronessa.’
‘Aristo women do not use violence,’ Mira said automatically. ‘We made that choice when we left Latino Crux.’
Mesquite ground the butt of her smoke underfoot. ‘So the women made that choice? Or the men made it for them? You have the Inborn Talent? What can you fly?’
‘Anything. Though I am most skilled with the Intuits.’
‘What about assailants?’
‘Si,’ said Mira, puzzled.
‘What are they built for, then? Leisure trips?’
‘Of course not.’
‘Oh, so you’re trained to fly a warship but you do not take up arms?’
‘That is different. I would never see my enemies…’ Mira trailed off limply.
Without warning Mesquite hooked Mira’s ankle and knocked her flat on her back. She shoved the point of her boot into Mira’s throat.
Mira struggled, trying to wrench