Doctor Who_ Beyond the Sun - Matthew Jones [72]
Bernice was barely listening. She swallowed uncomfortably, feeling her chance of finding Jason diminishing. This woman had been her last hope. She leant back against the desk and covered her mouth with her hand. ‘How did you meet him? Did he come here?’
‘To Ursu? No. There haven’t been any off-worlders here since the Galactic War. Excluding the Sunless and, of course, you and your little friends.’
‘I didn’t realize that Ursulans had travelled into space.’
‘They haven’t. At least only very few of us have. The Sunless have been trying to reclaim various items of equipment which were stolen from their world. They needed people to negotiate with governments and private individuals. Their homeworld was plundered of its ancient artefacts and technologies by several companies before the Galactic War. Now the Sunless are powerful enough, they’ve come to take back what is theirs. They invaded Ursu to reclaim the Blooms, but obviously they couldn’t invade the entire galaxy. They’ve been forced to negotiate for the return of some of their legacy. As you can imagine, they aren’t the most skilled diplomats.’
‘And I suppose you were happy to sell out Ursu to them?’
The woman shrugged, ignoring the judgmental tone in Bernice’s voice. ‘I happened to be in the right place at the right time, so I took up their offer. I met Jason on Denaria 7. I needed someone with experience of different cultures to help me in my work.’ She paused before adding, ‘And he was amusing to have around.’
Bernice took a deep breath. Why was she so freaked out that he was having sex with other people? They were divorced, for heaven’s sake! She’d had sex with other people. All right, she’d almost had sex with other people. She had wanted to. She was reminded of her rather unethical flirtations with Doran. But she hadn’t done the deed, and by the sounds of things Jason had.
Somehow that was more of a final severance than their decree absolute.
She forced the painful thoughts out of her mind and tried to concentrate on the present conversation. ‘And Jason? He didn’t return with you?’
‘I woke up one morning and he’d gone.’ Bernice must have looked worried because the woman added, ‘Oh, nothing sinister. He left a note and everything.’
‘What was his reason for leaving?’
‘I think his conscience got to him. He wasn’t keen on getting involved with weapons.’
Bernice frowned. ‘Hang on, what have weapons got to do with it? I thought you said that the Sunless were trying to reclaim their heritage?’
The woman laughed. ‘Their heritage is weapons. You don’t think that the Sunless would go tearing across space to try and reclaim a few works of art, do you? Their ancestors were great militarists. The companies took it all. Now the Sunless want it back.’
Bernice sighed, remembering her conversation with the Trans-System detective. A weapon with powers beyond the sun. But that had to be silly nonsense. She’d been an archaeologist long enough to know that lost alien civilizations did not go around leaving their powerful weapons lying around for any old nutter to find. I mean, they don’t, do they? No, of course not. The whole idea was preposterous.
She explained that Jason had come looking for her, although she didn’t mention why. The woman seemed genuinely surprised, although not particularly concerned to hear of Jason’s abduc-tion.
The woman began to fidget. Bernice could sense that the conversation was drawing to a close.
She tried another tack. ‘I don’t understand why you are helping the Sunless become more powerful. Why help them destroy your world?’
The woman gave a dry chuckle. ‘You’ve been listening to Ursulans for too long. They’ve got their heads in the clouds. Since the Sunless arrived at least there is enough food to go around.’
Bernice snorted. ‘Hardly surprising since the population has been halved.’
‘I think you’ve been the victim of anti-Sunless propaganda. Before they came, Ursu was becoming completely unviable. I mean it was all right while everyone lived in small