Transformation Space - Marianne de Pierres [75]
‘I would give you time to discuss your issues privately.’ Farr nodded at the guards.
They moved forward to escort Jise, Seeward, Ra and Balbao out of the room, leaving Connit.
Connit baulked, not wanting to be left with his father.
Ra, on the other hand, had no wish to leave the Commander’s presence, and jerked from their grasp. ‘Where is the device, Lasper?’
Farr’s lips pinched tight. ‘It’s gone. But you will make another for me soon.’
‘Gone? But I’d need equipment, and—’
Two simple arm movements from Farr decreed they all leave his presence, and Ra was unable to finish.
Balbao marched between the guards, grateful to be away from Farr, but his relief faded quickly when he saw where they were to be left.
‘We are not criminals,’ said Lawmon Jise to the guards. ‘We are refugees whom your Commander chose to take aboard. How dare you treat us like this?’ The tyro was so outraged that he let go of Miranda’s arm to push the guard.
A cuff from the soldier sent him sprawling into the containment cell. The rest of the refugees entered in shocked quiet, at gunpoint. Even Miranda was silent as she hurried over to Jise.
The containment field engaged, and they found themselves in a sparse space furnished with narrow fold-down bunks and a fold-down module that served as both washroom and san. There was no privacy, and the cell was already inhabited.
Two of the oldest ’esques Balbao had ever seen sat together on a single bunk. One, a woman with an impossibly lined face and an oddly toned physique, stared openly at them. The other, a man almost as aged, gazed after the guards.
The woman got up and came over, hand outstretched. ‘Call me Samuelle. This is Jeremiah Hob. Whatever you’ve all done to piss Lasper off, I’m real grateful.’
Balbao and the others stared at her.
‘See, he’s plannin’ to kill us. Then he had to go off dodging Extros to catch up with you all. We’re bettin’ he’s had too much else on his mind to think about us,’ she explained.
The male ’esque, Hob, slid off his bunk and began unfolding the others. ‘Too much tellin’, Sammy. Let ’em catch their breath.’
He hobbled over to Jise and offered him a hand. ‘Let’s get you up on a bed.’
OLOSS’s most vaunted lawmon accepted the gnarled hand, and was helped to a bunk. ‘Thank you, sir,’ said Jise in a shaky voice. ‘Please excuse our disarray; we’ve had rather a rough time of it.’
‘When you’re ready,’ said Hob, ‘we’d like to hear about it, and about what’s happening out there. Could be our stories might interest you too. Could be we can help each other.’
Balbao was taken with the old fellow’s dignified manner, as, he could tell, was Jise.
‘Take a bunk,’ Balbao suggested to the others.
Everyone did so, except Ra, who paced the length of the containment. The old woman, Sammy, watched him, clearly fascinated by the Godhead’s strange appearance.
‘Where in the name of Crux did you get those eyes? Thought I’d seen everythin’, but I ain’t seen nothing like them,’ she said.
Her comment was straightforward, bordering on simple, but Balbao didn’t think that was a reflection of her mind. Her sharp eyes were busy assessing everything. What in Sole’s name, he wondered, could this ancient and seemingly harmless couple have done to enrage Lasper Farr?
He leaned back against the wall and lifted his legs onto the bunk. As if on cue, a dreadful fatigue washed over him. ‘Is there anything to drink?’
Hob got up and went to the washing module. He pressed a panel, and a tube filled with water slid out of a slot. He twisted the tube from the dispenser and tossed it to Balbao. ‘Don’t take too long to drink it. The tube dissolves after a while so it can’t be used for anythin’. Anyone else?’
Everyone except Ra murmured their assent. Hob busied himself doling the water out while Balbao drank his. It tasted faintly musty, as though the recycler need recalibrating. By the time he’d finished it, some of his distress had faded.
He got off his bunk and dispensed another. Settling back to drink it, he began to talk. Jise and Miranda still seemed to be too upset, and Labile Connit