Eden's Revenge (Eden Paradox Book 3) Page 6

  Micah nodded.

  “I heard he still believes Mum’s alive,” she shouted.

  Micah gripped the throttle harder. It wasn’t necessarily good news if Kat was still alive, given who had abducted her and a Hohash two years ago, somehow managing to break through a Level Twelve Quarantine barrier. If Kat was still breathing somewhere, she sure as hell wouldn’t be having a good time of it.

  Chapter Two

  Prisoner

  Beneath a lapis sky skewered by towering redwoods, Kat dodged the pine spears raining down on her. Each one whistled on its fifty metre descent before puncturing the mossy ground with a dull ‘pfft’, spattering musky soil into the air around her. Bastard trees! She hurdled a root rising from the spongy undergrowth, then ducked as a branch swung down to head height – it would have knocked her out cold. Up ahead a small clearing invited, but she knew better – the shards of pine, dropping like weighted arrows as they tipped off the trees, would get her for sure if she fled into the open. She should have done as she was told and stayed by the lake. Then Tomar wouldn’t be dead.

  Kat wasn’t as fit as she used to be, but adrenaline had kicked in, and she ran fast, keeping close to the broad, gnarled trunks in the forest that was trying to kill her. She imagined snarling faces in the bark’s twisted patterns, but she knew the forest wasn’t highly intelligent, barely self-aware; just reacting to something which didn’t belong in its midst. As she lingered next to an old bough, trying to catch her breath, a vine curled up her leg. She pulled out her knife and rammed it hard into the tree. Kat doubted the forest felt pain, at least not at the level of her small blade, but she needed to make a statement. She yanked her leg out of the coil and worked out her sprint path, squinting through the branches and leaves that surrounded her, trying to cocoon her into a compost grave. A jet engine flared overhead – Louise, her captor these past two years, searching for her – another reason to stay under the canopy.

  Kat bolted away from the malevolent fir, buffeted by leaves as the wind swirled through the branches; the trees used it to their advantage, and she had to dive and roll on the mossy ground as a gust drove wooden claws down towards her. Just as her head was lifting from the ground, a patch of violet daisies squirted virulent pollen, catching the left side of her face. Pain seared through her left eyeball. While staggering blind for only a moment, a branch from behind connected with her head like a baseball bat and sent her sprawling.

  Thick vines lost no time in trapping her ankles. Struggling onto her knees, she fished for her knife and found its sheath empty, the glimmer of her blade out of reach, sinking into the undergrowth as if it were quicksand. She looked upwards: four massive redwoods loomed overhead, swaying in the gale above, closing around her. She knew what was next. Considering her options, she decided she had none, other than becoming fertilizer, probably the fate of many an alien landing on this inviting, green, and thoroughly deadly planet. Sharp cracks above announced a shower of spears on its way. Kat kept her eyes open. Rather than pointlessly placing her hands over her head, she folded her arms, spat at the ground, then held her breath.

  Two boots thudded in front of her. She tried to think of it as good news. The air around her shimmered, just as the wooden javelins pounded like hail on the shield her captor had just erected.

  “Pleased to see me?” Louise’s voice was deep, sultry, mocking as usual.

  “Tomar’s dead,” Kat replied. That was a good thing, given what Louise would have done to him had he survived; Louise wasn’t the forgiving type, especially when it came to betrayal.

  Louise knelt down, her eyes level with Kat’s. “I left the other four Mannekhi at the lakeside.”

  Kat’s grey eyes flared. “They had nothing to do with it. It was only Tomar who –”

  “Your word that you won’t try again. Or else they stay here on this planet.”

  Kat turned her head away. She hadn’t cared much for the Mannekhi, human-looking companions but for their all-black eyes – except Tomar – but they wouldn’t last a night on this lethal forest planet, and even if they did, they’d starve to death within a week. Louise didn’t seem to be paying attention – the Alician-Q’Roth hybrid treated everything as a game, one she wasn’t that interested in, except when she might lose. Then she could get unbelievably nasty.

  Kat nodded.

  “Say it.”

  Kat looked Louise in the eyes. “I won’t try to escape again. You have my word.” She waited a second while Louise watched her, like a cobra deciding whether to strike or not. “Okay, Louise, I’ve had enough countryside for one day. Are we done here?”

  Louise smiled. “You are more amusing than the others, I’ll give you that.” She pulled out a pistol and fired at the vines trapping Kat’s legs, releasing her. She held out a hand to help Kat up. “Let’s go home, shall we?”

  Kat found her legs were numb below the knee, and she had to accept Louise’s help to get up. She wanted to spit again, but decided not to push her luck.

  Back onboard the long range Q’Roth Marauder, Kat met with the four remaining Mannekhi crew in one of the many jade-coloured walled chambers with no furniture save a table extruded at one end, too high to be of much use for non-Q’Roth passengers. Q’Roth never sat, apparently. The Mannekhi appeared so humanoid, except for their pure-black eyes, that Kat wondered if they were somehow related. Like her, they wore grey one-piece suits, purely functional affairs.

  Kat made the first move. “I’m sorry about Tomar, really.” She was. It had been his idea – he’d thought they could escape. But nobody except Louise had known the nature of the forest, and he’d been speared in the first five minutes of leaving the lake.

  The bald Elder, Tarish, fingered his short white beard. “We thank you for getting us back aboard.”

  Aramisk, the only female in the Mannekhi group, glared at Kat from beneath a dark mop of hair. She flexed her arm muscles, like a male gorilla. “If this precious bitch hadn’t tried to escape… Where were you going to go, anyway? Did you even have a plan? You humans may look like us but I can see why the Q’Roth cull on humanity was sanctioned.”

  Kat advanced, her nostrils flaring, readying her fists to see just how tough Aramisk’s bony cheeks were, how easily her thick lips would split. Tarish stepped between them, held up his hand. He turned to Aramisk, bowed his head slightly, said “Forgive me, Aramisk,” then slapped her right cheek hard.

  Kat winced. She’d been stuck with this group for the past nine months, and still found their culture shocking. Mannekhi valued free speech and discipline in equal measure. She wouldn’t fancy being brought up as a Mannekhi child. Tomar had been the youngest, a rebel by Mannekhi standards.

  Aramisk recovered, bowed, and gave the customary reply. “Thank you, Elder, for reminding me of my place.”

  Kat tried again for the umpteenth time to reach them, wondering if their blood debt to her, for making sure Louise didn’t leave them to die on the forest planet, might incline them to listen this time. The Mannekhi had chosen Qorall’s side, and these four – plus Tomar – had been an advance scouting party tracking down the almost mythical Kalarash known as Hellera, last seen in the Ant Nebula. Louise was delivering them to Qorall’s generals with a piece of critical information they wouldn’t even tell her, which was maybe why she had a cavalier attitude to their survival.

  Kat spoke up. “Qorall is using you, you know that don’t you? Once he gets his way, he’ll cast the Mannekhi aside, assuming there’s anything left of the galaxy by the time he’s finished.”

  Tarish nodded heavily, as always. She knew from Tomar that this wasn’t just an affectation. Mannekhi looked human, but they were far more advanced. Tomar had explained to her one night how Mannekhi considered premises from all angles, playing them backwards and forwards in time with multiple what-if scenarios; like four-dimensional chess. Humans, by comparison, seemed to be guessing all the time, failing to include vital pieces of information or likely events that didn’t fit the view they wanted.
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br />   Tomar had made love to her that night. At least in that sphere of activity they hadn’t been too different. That was the first and only time, just a few days ago, before Louise had decided to go down to the forest-planet to re-stock certain rare minerals, or maybe just to stretch her legs.

  Kat missed Tomar, though they’d barely known each other. He’d been her first real emotional contact in the two years since Louise had taken her prisoner. She focused her mind back on the issue at hand.

  Kat appreciated that Tarish was weighing not just the words, but the context, motives and personality of the speaker, and factoring in knowledge about her cultural origins. Mannekhi did not waste words; there was never any banter. Maybe that was their problem, Kat mused; this crew is too damned serious.

  “Try to imagine,” Tarish began, with a voice that commanded absolute attention, “an alien occupation lasting your entire people’s history. Sponsorship is a difficult process. Over millennia, it gets inside your cultural DNA. Growing up knowing that you are not considered good enough for anything but the Grid’s menial work. Our earliest artifacts and artistry from fifty thousand years ago show us as subservient to other races. It has shaped our identity.”

  He approached her, and placed a smooth palm on her shoulder. With any other man, except maybe Blake or Zack, she’d have brushed the hand off immediately, but this Elder – his sincerity and humility were like nothing she’d ever encountered before.

  He smiled, the way she imagined a saint might, except for the glimmering all-black eyes. “For the first time in our entire history, we have been given respect by a higher order species. We are on the winning side now. If you were us, would you not take this opportunity?”

  Louise entered the chamber, and the four Mannekhi immediately dropped to one knee. Kat folded her arms.

  Louise walked up to her. “You should listen to him, Katrina.”

  “You should listen to yourself, Louise.” It was a game they played.

  Something ugly flared behind Louise’s eyes, and Kat found herself on the floor, her chin smarting. Goddammit, Louise was quick; Kat hadn’t even seen the blow coming.

  “You are too familiar with me. You will address me by my formal Q’Roth designation as the Mannekhi do. You will address me as Arctura.” Louise wandered around the kneeling, heads-bowed group, and paused behind Aramisk. The fingers of her left hand traced the girl’s chin, then cupped it in her palm, the other hand on the nape of the girl’s sturdy neck.

  Kat leapt to her feet. “No… Please, Lou –” She met the part-woman-mostly-Q’Roth’s eyes, taking in the steadfast look on Aramisk’s face, despite her trembling lower lip.

  Kat knelt on one knee. “Please… Arctura.”

  Louise’s fingers traced Aramisk’s cheek, stroked her hair, and then let go of her. “You’ve come a long way today, Katrina. There is hope for you yet. You and I will dine together tonight, there is much to discuss.” She stood in front of Tarish, and lifted up her palms. As one, the Mannekhi rose. “Elder,” she said, “Your loyalty today has not gone unnoticed.” She left the room.

  Kat got up, wishing one of the spears had gotten her earlier. She stared at the floor. Two sandaled feet appeared before her. Six toes per foot; the other difference, she remembered.

  Aramisk’s voice was firm. “Thank you. But you must understand, I wish you had died today. Because of you, Tomar is dead.”

  She reached out and touched Kat’s face; another gesture Kat had noticed, a way of saying, “listen to me”, or rather, “I need to ensure you hear my words.” But Aramisk’s fingers were iron. The others departed while she held Kat’s chin. Kat knew that by custom she had to wait until the speaker let go. When the others were gone, Aramisk continued in a lower, less aggressive tone. “You cared for him, didn’t you?”

  Kat realized the power of this form of exchange. She could not lie, and emotions rose to the surface. Her eyes misted. She said nothing.

  “We Mannekhi are neither stupid nor blind. We look for opportunities.” She let go of Kat’s face. “When the time comes, we will see whose side we choose.”

  Alone, Kat sat on the cold floor. For the first time in days, she thought about her daughter Petra, wondering how she would look now, two years older. And Antonia, her wife. Kat missed her. But the face she kept coming back to was Micah’s. They’d never got on, especially since he’d originally been interested in Antonia. But she’d been counting the days carefully over the past two years, and knew Quarantine would be coming down very soon. Blake was getting on in years and would not leave his beloved spiders. Gabriel would go after Sister Esma and the Alicians – that much bloodlust could not have abated in such a short space of time. Micah, though – he would come looking. Not just for her, but for Louise, because he knew, as Kat did now, that Louise was the larger threat.

  But the question arose in her mind, as it had almost every day since her capture, of what Louise wanted with her, and where exactly she was taking her. Not for the first time, she wondered if it was better not to know.

  Kat was roused from her slumber as ocean blue light drifted into her room, rippling over the dark walls. She rubbed her eyes. “About time.” It had been three weeks. “You know I worry about you spending so much time with that bitch.”

  The Hohash, an alien artefact she’d first encountered on Eden, was about the same height as she was, its oval mirror-like flow-surface bordered by a golden tube. It hovered within arms’ reach of her bedside. Its fluidic surface mimicked Pacific rollers, one of her favourite vistas, reminding her of her surfing days with her older sister.

  “What’s new?”

  The Hohash could not make sounds, but had learned to lip-read human speech. Abruptly its face changed to a star chart, showing the entire galaxy from above. The colour of more than half changed to deep red: Qorall-controlled space. Worse, a finger of scarlet edged towards a yellow-highlighted star, where Esperia, and Kat’s loved ones lay, presumably oblivious to approaching Armageddon.

  “Zoom in please.”

  She did a rough count of the stars between the front and Esperia. Six months, at most. “Where are we?” Her heart sank as a blue dot flashed, deep inside Qorall space. “Do you know where Qorall is?” A band of orange appeared. It included many star systems – so the Hohash didn’t know exactly where Qorall was.

  Kat dreaded asking the next question. She cleared her throat, and found herself closing her eyes as she asked it. “Where is Pierre?” She prayed he would still be out there somewhere, even though he was no longer her Pierre, and had advanced to God-alone knew what Level on the Grid scale. She held her breath and opened her eyes. A purple dot, between the front and Esperia. She breathed a sigh of relief. “Do you know what he’s up to?” Her Hohash had never answered this question, though Pierre evidently had one on his ship.

  To her surprise, she was shown an image inside Pierre and Ukrull’s compact ship. She saw the Ranger Ukrull, a big, reptilian alien with disgusting table manners, and a perfectly silver Pierre – her former lover and Petra’s father, inadvertently advanced to Level Ten, shedding his emotions along the way. The Hohash was showing her far more than usual, so Kat decided to push her luck. “Petra? Antonia? Micah?”

  She half-fell, half-clambered off the bed down onto the hard floor on her knees as a series of images flooded across its face. She gripped the golden edges of the Hohash, her arms trembling, as she saw her daughter, laughing with Micah, and then Antonia, for the first time in two years. Pride surged in her breast: Petra was quite the young woman, Antonia as regal as ever. Was that the first tinge of grey on Micah’s hair? She wiped tears away, not wishing to miss a second of it. Abruptly the images ceased. Mustard light flooded into her room, Louise’s silhouette framed in the doorway.

  “Katrina, I made a deal with the Hohash when I first brought you aboard. It likes you, and I made it clear that if it showed you any images without my permission, I would blind you; you don’t need sight for what I have in mind for you.”

 
; Kat felt winded; these past two years, she’d thought the Hohash didn’t trust her anymore. She turned to face Louise, letting go of the Hohash’s rim. “So, why now, Arctura?”

  Louise folded her arms – something Kat had never seen her do before.

  “I need your cooperation… Kat. If you work with me – I mean really cooperate, then the Hohash is free to show you all the images it can. I will not intervene.”

  Kat turned back to the Hohash’s dulled surface, its familiar oil-on-water swirl of browns. She knew the Hohash had an extremely limited emotional repertoire, being an intelligent device rather than a species. Still, she wondered how it felt about the situation. She guessed she’d never know, so it was her decision alone.

  Her chest felt tight, but there was a longing deep in her belly. She felt like she’d been in prison the past two years, ripped from her friends and family, from everything. She’d become a ghost. She didn’t want to help Louise, let alone Qorall, and yet... she had needs.

  She remembered Tarish’s words, and knew that a Mannekhi would weigh all this up in an instant and come to a different conclusion. But Kat wasn’t Mannekhi. She traced a finger over the Hohash’s mirror surface. Louise had waited all this time, not to break her spirit, but to bend it to her will.

  Forgive me, Micah.

  She stood up. “What do want me to do, Arctura?”

  Kat stayed up all night. Hellera, the last Kalarash in the galaxy. Not myth after all. A Level Nineteen female, one of the so-called Progenitors who had breathed sentient life into the galaxy, the original masters of the Tla Beth, the Grid’s current rulers, and sworn enemies of Qorall. Qorall wanted to know where she was. Apparently the Mannekhi had tracked her to the Ant Nebula but she had moved to one of three potential locations – Tarish had finally told Louise earlier that evening. Hellera possessed a Hohash, for sure – the Kalarash had devised them – and Kat could communicate with Hohash…