The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [74]
Harry was gazing at the palm of one hand where data and images streamed and glowed. When Julia spoke he snapped his fingers and the display vanished.
‘I keep an upload grappler on standby at all times,’ he said. ‘As for our current location … well, let us say that it doesn’t appear on any tiernet maps. Those who make use of the place call it Qijiq, although it has had other names at different times. It was once a military spy probe deployed by one of the Hegemony’s imperial predecessors, the Uphari Alliance, probably. After the Uphari were eclipsed, it passed into the hands of a trade cartel, then to a cabal of Bargalil sympathisers soon after the Indroma revolution. They turned it into the hub of their news and propaganda network, a kind of prototype tiernet which was very popular for a short time until ideological arguments split the cabal. One faction towed it off into hyperspace, thinking to reclaim it at a later date. But they were wiped out by unknown assailants and the probe lay undisturbed until about a century ago when it was reactivated by a guild of dataleggers. They knew a good thing when they saw it and linked it to the tiernet with a shift-encrypted locater code. Which I cracked with a little help.’
‘Hmm, a history lesson,’ Julia said. ‘How instructive.’
‘I always feel that more information is better than less,’ Harry said, smiling.
‘I’ve no objection, provided the information is relevant.’
‘I believe I detect a hint of impatience,’ he said. ‘We need only wait a short while longer … ah, or less.’
Beyond Harry’s streetscape imagery a restless glow, flickering like a knot of gleams and angles, approached, its appearance blurring as it entered the shadowy street. Out of the shadows stepped a tall man wearing a plain black suit, black leather gloves and carrying a slender document case.
‘Client Harry,’ he said in a deep rich voice. ‘And a fully fractalised sentience, with naturalistic ego state and dynamic, memory-aware volition.’
‘Vayosh,’ Harry said. ‘This is my companion, Julia. Good to see that your analytics are as sharp as ever. I hope you are able to satisfy the curiosity I mentioned.’
Vayosh’s smile was a cold baring of teeth.
‘An interesting request, to find the location of a tiernet node aboard a specific vessel possibly in transit. Taxing, but not beyond my abilities.’
Harry grinned. ‘You’ve found it.’
Vayosh gave a slight nod. ‘First, the defrayment.’
From within his coat, Harry produced a slim hardback book and handed it over. ‘Decrypts for various weapons contractors on Chasulon, very recently acquired.’
‘High-value items,’ said Vayosh as he locked it away in his case. ‘Most acceptable.’ From his suit pocket he took a silver coin and flipped it to Harry, who caught it in midair. He waited a moment then opened his hand and gazed at the data that glowed there.
‘This vessel, the Sacrament, is currently in hyperspace transit,’ Vayosh said. ‘And as you can see it is not alone.’
‘Vor,’ Harry said, frowning as he studied the images.
‘There were no other ships when I was on board,’ said Julia. ‘And what’s a Vor?’
‘The Vor,’ he said. ‘An ancient race supposedly lost in the depths of hyperspace, lost or extinct. Not a very pleasant species either, yet it seems that two of their ships are now accompanying the Chaurixa on their journey.’
‘You can also see that the Chaurixa vessel’s tiernet node is all but impregnable,’ Vayosh said. ‘The security encryption seems excessive for such a vessel, perhaps the consequence of a data breach in the not-too-distant past.’
Harry gave her a rueful smile. ‘Sorry, Julia – I can’t see us breaking back into this cage.’
She nodded, concealing her disappointment.
‘Where are they headed?’ she said.
‘Tiernet tracking is imprecise,’ said Vayosh. ‘But from the sample period it seems that they are on course for the edge of Hegemony space.’
‘Any overheard communications between the three ships?’ said Harry.
‘There were indications of intership comm-beam relays,’ Vayosh said. ‘These are inaccessible