Mirror Space - Marianne de Pierres [117]
When she returned to the main room Thales was seated in one of the chairs watching Samuelle pace. Her body moved with remarkable agility.
‘Sit yourself down, girl, before yer pass out.’ She poured Mira some water from a dispenser in a cupboard and passed it to her. ‘Git to it.’
Mira nodded. She’d been rehearsing this while she waited for Thales, and the words came freely. ‘I was kidnapped on Rho Junction by a group of Post-Species. They took me to their world in Extropy—’
‘What did they want?’ interrupted Samuelle.
‘I have the Innate gene, which allows me to fly a biozoon. They wished to analyse it. They have trouble with keeping their host bodies alive.’
‘Women don’t get that gene.’
‘I know,’ said Mira. ‘But I have.’
The woman gave a low whistle. ‘Go on.’
‘The story is detailed but I managed to escape with the help of one of them. Insignia, my ship, came for me. As we left Extropy space we observed something utterly dreadful.’
‘What could be so bad?’
‘Intuitive Incendiary transporters.’
‘Geni-carriers? How many? Five? Ten?’
Mira closed her eyes, remembering the sight of them - like an asteroid belt colliding with a shift sphere. ‘Millions. Insignia can quantify it more exactly.’
‘Millions? Bullshit.’
Mira stared without blinking. ‘It’s the truth. They were shifting.’
‘To where?’
‘Araldis, I assume. But I could not be sure.’
Samuelle’s suit propelled her to the narrow bed and she sat down. Her face had lost its colour. ‘How could they have so many? When did they . . . Baronessa Fedor.’ Her head jerked up quickly. ‘Yer not insane are yer?’
Mira felt her lips almost stretch into a smile. ‘Indeed, I am. But not in relation to this. I wish that I was.’
‘The biozoon will confirm yer story? The biozoon is here?’
‘Si.’ Mira said it confidently, though she was not sure - Insignia was angry enough with her to be spiteful. ‘It is among the Envoy pod.’
‘Then we have ta find a way to git you to this meeting.’
‘That could be . . . difficult. You know of my problems with OLOSS and the Stationmaster?’
Samuelle nodded. She stood again, a tinge of colour returning to her face. Her eyes darted about with thought, and then fell upon Thales Berniere. ‘Time for yer confession, young one. I need me best soldier back.’
JO-JO RASTEROVICH
Jo-Jo was getting the hang of things. Navigating the Extras’ aural landscape wasn’t much different from a holo map. He found himself increasingly able to glide between layers and pick up conversations at whim. His adaptability had to be related to Sole’s interference with his brain function. He could think of no other reason.
Rast Randall, on the other hand, was struggling to fight her way out of listening isolation. Jo-Jo heard the relief in her voice every time he returned to speak to her.
‘What’s the news?’ she asked with strained lightness. ‘Found Catchut or Lat yet?’
He hesitated. He’d located Catchut, but the merc was gibbering. No amount of talking on Jo-Jo’s part had been able to penetrate the man’s broken mind. ‘Catchut’s not making much sense. Think the process might’ve cracked him.’
‘The process.’ Randall’s voice rose. ‘What frigging process? We’re stuck in some frigging sound chamber with a bunch of faceless echoes. Where’s the frigging process in that?’
‘Randall!’
The merc fell silent for a time. No tears, but Jo-Jo sensed something else. Rast couldn’t hold on much longer. Soon she’d be like Catchut. Jo-Jo didn’t have much affection for Randall but he didn’t want to be left alone here.
‘Hold on. I can see daylight,’ he said, using the shorthand way they’d developed to speak to each other.
‘Truth?’ she asked in a subdued tone.
‘Truer than.’
‘I need to see light soon then. Or I won’t.’ She knew she was losing it.
‘Back in a flash.’
Jo-Jo left her and slipped back into the wider stream. He floated on the noise, thinking. His ability, and Rast’s, to have an emotional response suggested that their bodies were still intact somewhere. He wasn’t sure why, but that made sense to him.
If he was right about that, then there had to be a way back to them.
The Medium