Transformation Space - Marianne de Pierres [82]
‘So, Baronessa,’ he replied eventually. ‘What brings you straight into the jaws of the enemy in the middle of a war?’
‘I’m carrying an ailing Post-Species who requires assistance.’
‘Post-Species, you say. What d’ya mean?’
‘I mean one of the Host varieties, whose Host has perished. Its protective casing has been damaged. I believe the material it needs to regenerate is found on Araldis.’
‘You don’t say?’
Jancz’s trite responses irritated her. ‘I do, Captain Jancz. Or I would have kept quiet.’
‘The Extros are taking over OLOSS. Won’t be a planet left that doesn’t answer to them.’
‘It seems you chose the right side.’ She kept her voice cool despite her rising agitation.
‘You know your people are dead. All of them,’ he added.
Acid rushed up into her gullet. She tasted its sourness and felt the burn.
Mama, the voice is trying to hurt you with its words. Nova’s simple thought calmed her.
Si, Nova. This humanesque is cruel.
Are most like him?
Mira hesitated. Some. You remember Thales?
From my birthing place. Si.
He is not like that.
I’m glad.
‘I’m here for the sake of the Post-Species. Will you help it?’ she said into the comm.
This time it was Jancz who hesitated. ‘Stand by.’
Mira waited, stroking Nova’s back. What is the status of the Geni-carriers? she asked Insignia.
These are only a small portion of the ones we saw leave their system. The rest have been deployed.
Then he is not bluffing. Is there news of the OLOSS worlds?
No. The silence is most unnerving.
Unnerving? How unlike Insignia to use such an evocative word. The biozoon was largely pragmatic, and fatalistic. Are the Pod safe?
My link is very faint. But it is there.
Mira felt relieved. The notion of the Pod seemed almost as much ‘home’ to her as the world they now orbited.
‘You are permitted onto Araldis,’ said Jancz without preamble. ‘We’ll shortcast landing coordinates. Don’t deviate from them, Baronessa – I’ll be trackin’ you.’
The ’cast terminated, and Mira indicated to Primo that she wished to sit upright. The membrane moulded around her to bring her to a sitting position. She slid Nova down onto her knee.
The baby stared up at her. Will it be safe where we are going, Mama?
Mira sighed. You are too young to concern yourself with risk and safety, Nova. That is my job.
Nova kicked her little arms and legs in what appeared to be a mild protest. I grew inside your womb. I understand danger.
Did you … was there … a moment at which you gained clear thought? She tried to ask the question that had been burning her mind as delicately as possible.
Si. I’m not sure how to explain it. Tasy-al was there. From the beginning. I could feel Tasy-al around me, around us. It was nice. Warm. Then it became difficult. You needed me, and I could no longer sleep and dream. Nova’s thoughts were a little muddled.
When was that, little one?
On the Hub world.
Mira let out a breath. The Post-Species had altered her child, she was sure. You helped me? She repeated the thought despite already knowing it to be true. Through the Hub wall and into the Bare World, and then again, when I would have fallen into the flood.
It’s all right, Mama. I will need you, too. Perhaps soon.
Nova?
What must be.
I don’t understand.
I’m hungry now.
Mira sighed and put Nova to her breast.
I have the coordinates, Mira, Insignia said.
She leaned back more deeply into the Primo membrane. As the sensors reclaimed her skin, so an image of Araldis blossomed in her mind.
The image skewed, grew, shrank, then grew again. When the focus defined, she saw an enormous cylindrical object, mesurs wide, resting on the desert rock, its surface pitted from space travel. Hundreds – thousands – of Saqr crawled over it, their maws bent to the skin of the craft, as if either tending or feeding from it.
An AiV and numerous terrain vehicles were parked in a cluster near one edge, close to a wide opening in the ground.