Transformation Space - Marianne de Pierres [118]
He took that as consent, so he told her what he knew of her mother – how she’d tried to follow her daughter to Araldis but had been put in detention on Dowl station.
He told her about their escape from Dowl and how brave and smart and resourceful Bethany was, and how she’d saved him.
When Djes didn’t respond, he talked more, about Lasper Farr and how Bethany had feared him; the power that Farr wielded and Bethany’s desire to distance herself from her brother’s fanaticism. And finally how her mother had helped Mira.
Only when the sun came close to cresting the horizon did he stop.
‘Come back,’ he said. ‘Some things need to be faced. Mira tells the truth.’
He got up and walked up the beach to the closest tree cover and waited. She stood facing the ocean as the light grew more intense, and he began to fear that she’d choose neither the sea nor returning, but simply perish right there in the sunlight.
Then, in an oddly final gesture, she scooped water in her hands and splashed it over her face.
TRIN
Mira had changed little, save for new age lines which he didn’t see until she came closer and her calm expression. With each step she took towards him Trin felt the pain of his past decisions and the weight of his future. What had she said to Djes? What would she say to his people?
He waited, more fearful of her than the Saqr. And the ’bino … there was no sign of pregnancy? What had gone wrong?
‘Fedor.’ The mercenary next to him strode forward and lifted the Baronessa from her feet to embrace her. Just as quickly, she set Mira down and stepped aside. ‘Never figured to see you alive again,’ she drawled. ‘Never figured to be so pleased to see you alive again. Looks like I’ll be owin’ you again.’
Mira seemed flustered, her composure deserting her for a moment. ‘I would say the same thing to you, Rast Randall. We are both fortunate, it seems.’
Trin saw his opportunity; the mercenary’s unexpected greeting had rattled her. ‘Mira Fedor,’ he said loudly, ‘your biozoons are a welcome sight.’
His rebuke, couched in an innocent greeting, didn’t slip past her though, and as quickly as she’d become ruffled, her face regained its mask. ‘As are your people.’
The moment hung between them, filled with tension and anger. She’d gained confidence, he thought. Despite her fragile appearance, her will projected fiercely upon him.
‘I have little time before I must leave again and there is much to tell.’ She looked around the group. ‘Please sit, all of you, and I will begin.’
Many of them glanced to the Principe, who nodded.
Once they had settled Mira told them of the Post-Species invasion across OLOSS.
‘The satellites in the skies?’ asked Cass.
‘Geni-carriers, which are gradually being dispersed all over Orion. Millions have been murdered. Systems reduced to dust.’
‘How many are there?’ asked Juno Genarro. ‘The lights have diminished over recent nights.’
‘Thousands,’ said Mira. ‘Perhaps more.’
The survivors moaned with one voice.
‘There is something I can do to arrest the destruction of our species but it is complicated to tell and not a certainty. I will be going at dusk, but will leave you the hybrid biozoon. It is space-worthy, though it needs some days bathing in sea minerals to replenish its amino acids. It has been treated cruelly.’
‘But where would we go?’ this came from Jilda.
‘Principessa,’ Mira acknowledged Trin’s mother with a tiny bow of her head. ‘The Post-Species are preparing to leave here. They’ve transformed their ship into an organic lifeform, a gigantic Saqr which continues to grow as we sit here. Its genesis is inexplicable. I cannot tell you how it happened, other than it grew from within the old ship. And it smelled of ligs.’
Ligs. Mira’s story jolted Trin. ‘There are ligs on this island, huge ligs that attacked us near the spring.’
‘You believe the giant ligs are linked to the Saqr, Principe?’ said Juno frowning.
‘When I searched for water alone, I found a grove of trees. Bigger, stronger, more developed than these.’ He waved his hands at the stunted bushes under