Transformation Space - Marianne de Pierres [97]
Mira!
He leapt forward without thought for anything except to stop her disappearing beneath the liquefying amber floor. He grabbed her shoulders, and before she could even turn her head, pulled her back towards him. They fell together, her body cushioned by his. A moment later she began to fight him, writhing and slapping at his face.
‘Baronessa,’ he gasped hoarsely, gripping her fists. ‘It’s Josef Rasterovich. Jo-Jo.’
Her body went slack as his words penetrated, and he eased her onto her side so that they were lying face to face.
‘Jo-sef!’ A terrified whisper, broken by relief. ‘Thank Crux.’
She gripped his arm as if she would never let it go, and a rush of elation made his body feel lighter and stronger. Jo-Jo had never experienced such pure pleasure. She was happy to see him.
‘Don’t move,’ he managed to say. ‘You’ll break the surface tension.’
She gave the tiniest of nods. Their faces were so close that her breath mixed with his. She smelled of biozoon and something milky-sweet.
Without thinking, he slid a hand down her side to her stomach. Her flesh felt flat and loose beneath her robe. Not pregnant.
Her eyes narrowed. ‘What – are – you – doing?’
‘I – I – thought you were … I noticed … You were pregnant on Rho Junction. Weren’t you? Did you lose it?’
She seemed startled for a moment, then collected herself. ‘Si. It was not something I wanted to talk about then. And now the explanations could take some time. My baby survived, and is aboard Insignia.’
‘You had a child?’ He felt a well of endless questions opening inside. Who was the father?
‘Si. A girl. Nova.’
Jo-Jo tried to work it out. How long had they been apart? It seemed longer than it was. She could not have borne a healthy child in that time.
‘She was born early,’ she said, as if guessing his thoughts. ‘Tell me, do you know how to get out?’
He shook his head. ‘Not really, except back through the tunnel. Same way I came in. Where we don’t want to be is underneath this stuff we’re lying on.’
‘What do you mean?’ She continued to stare straight into his eyes as he gave her a brief run-down of his time on Medium and his escape.
She didn’t interrupt him, her eyes growing darker and more intense as he told his story. When he’d finished, they lay in silence for a while.
‘And that will happen to us, if we move?’ she asked.
‘It might happen anyway. Seems they can make this stuff as liquid or as brittle as they like. Right now we’ll stay on top if we don’t move.’
‘But you got out,’ she whispered. ‘So what are you doing back here?’
He paused before he answered. It seemed the right time for the truth, of sorts. If Medium engulfed him a second time, he might never see her again. There was no point keeping secrets. ‘When the Entity saved me back near Mintaka, it changed my mind. You’ve heard of shafting?’
She nodded again, gently. ‘The Entity alters the minds of its tyros so that it can better communicate with them.’
‘Yeah. Well, it did the same to me when it resurrected me. See, I was dead out there. When it bought me back, it was able to talk directly into my head. I haven’t heard it for a long while. But it started talking to me a day ago. Told me to hurry here. Thing is, when it’s like that I can’t do a damn thing to fight it. It wanted me to come here and find you.’
He watched her absorb what he’d said.
‘Where were you when it … it intervened?’ she asked. ‘With the survivors,’ he said.
Her free hand shot out and gripped his shoulder again. Their lips were so close now that he had only to move his head a little, and—
‘Who?’ she whispered.
‘Pellegrini and some others. About thirty of them. Maybe less.’
Her fingers clenched convulsively, pinching his skin. He didn’t notice the discomfort, just that she was touching him. ‘Was Cass Mulravey alive? Did she