Mirror Space - Marianne de Pierres [78]
‘Whatever you prefer,’ said Tekton politely.
‘Jelly’s the way it been for many a while, and Jelly’s the way that—’
‘Who is Sam?’ Tekton interrupted more curtly. His saviour, it appeared, was easily distracted and inclined to garrulousness.
‘It’s Samuelle, in fact, to those that don’t know her. Used to work in Lasper’s labs till it got so she knew more’n him. Now she sells to him. Got her own little patch not far from here.’
‘Farr allows an opponent to thrive on his own planet?’
Hob chewed on his cheeks a bit before he answered. ‘She’s not agin him, as such, and she’s not for him, neither. Hard to tell you right, how it is.’ He rubbed his chin with a dirty forefinger and then his eyebrows raised as an idea formed. ‘Uneasy is how it is, you see. Need each other - for now . . .’
Tekton listened intently for a while, until the details became hard to track. He found his attention drifting to the patchwork job Jelly Hob had performed on his wounds. His Health Watch should take care of any infection, but a scan in a decent medi-lab would put his mind at rest. And Ampere sounded more comfortable, and safe, and possibly more hygienic than Jelly Hob’s helter-skelter cone.
‘Could we go there now?’ he asked when Jelly paused to light a new cigar.
The man nodded ready agreement. ‘Might as well. Got a hankering for some of Sam’s rum. Best I’ve tasted since the war.’
As Jelly Hob helped Tekton back down the stairs to the tug and manoeuvred the squat little vehicle out of its mooring and headed it deeper into the outer rubbish rim of Edo, he kept up a monologue on the Stain Wars.
Tekton tuned in periodically, when Hob’s smoking didn’t muffle the words too much or when the passing scenery closed in tight as though they were flying through a narrow, jagged tunnel, and gave him claustrophobia.
It seemed that Hob had been combat-rated and damn good, if he could be believed at all.
‘Saw Brigoon up close,’ Hob reflected. ‘And the Mio moons. Blew the guts out of a couple of Extro Geni-carriers there at the end. No substitute for the old u-missiles in the P-class. Made such a mess it was like navigatin’ through a Void shower afterwards. Extras got so damn close to the Mios, thought they’d mebbe wipe ‘em out. That’s when Lasper gave the orders to blow the fuckers. Lasper said them Geni-carriers was automated, killin’ machines with no brain. Never was too sure about that. Seems Extras can put a damn brain in jus’ about anythin’. I hoped after, he was right. At tha’ time though I was just thinkin’ ‘bout the Mios. After that, Lasper told me ta change tack, sent us to intercept the OLOSS fleet. The whole friggin’ fleet. Never been so shittin’ scared in me life. Thought he’d lost his stones, y’know. Turns out he knows how to play tha’ game damn good. He . ..’
It went on. And on. A recount of the last moments of the war, who’d done what and Lasper’s counter-moves. At another time it might have been fascinating, but Tekton had a welter of things on his mind, not the least of which was the need to reflect on his own reaction to the first real danger he’d ever experienced. The encounter had left him exhausted but curiously focused. As if free-mind and logic-mind had reached a brief harmonic balance. Both of them were adamant about one thing. Don’t let Lasper Farr get away with this.
‘. . . hittin’ the Geni-carrier was lucky, I reckon. Couldn’t pick what they’d do next, those damn Extras. Never could see their logic. Not ever.’
‘Commander Farr must have been able to.’ commented Tekton gently.
Hob made a grumbling noise, as if he’d been woken after a bad night’s sleep. ‘Mebbe,’ he said. ‘Mebbe not. Things happened. Sure. Sam’s the one to talk to ‘bout them Extras. She was there too.’
‘In the war?’
‘Yeah. Old as Lasper, she is. She don’t believe in rejuve - except for organs and things. Not like me.’ He puffed for a while then, lifting his breather mask to suck on the cigar and then again a moment later to blow it out. ‘Third set of lungs in as many decades.’
Tekton couldn’t tell if he was joking. The man looked older than