Supernal

Chapter 26

Rob had acquired some fearsome-looking bolt cutters from one of the assembly workers' tool kits. They had reasoned that the collar would not be easy to remove.

Jayal looked apprehensively at the cutters, pointed at them, and put her finger to her lips. They had to do it silently.

Rob inserted one of the blades between the band and Jayal's neck. The collar was tight and Jayal grimaced but made no sound as the steel blade broke her skin. Charlie quickly handed her a paper towel to stem the blood. Then Rob brought the long handles together slowly, slicing through the tough material of the band without a sound.

Jayal kept hold of the collar to prevent it from falling then held up five fingers before leaving the crew room with it. Five minutes later she was back and Summers led them all to the secure briefing room.

#

"Where did you go?" Toby asked as Charlie applied an antiseptic salve to the cut on Jayal's neck.

"I put the collar under Sara's pillow. Velan will pick up the sound of her breathing and think I'm asleep. Then I gave Mutu another dose of your nasal spray."

"Clever girl," Summers said. "Now tell us what the hell is going on."

"While Velan and Nimir were making a show of doing tests on the children I said I had to go to the bathroom. I opened Velan's private messages from Vitu on our communications unit. The latest one translated as 'Subject cerebrums required for analysis without delay'. His answer was 'Understood. Will send by courier and dispose of bodies in a pod'."

All four were dumbstruck by Jayal's disclosure until Charlie spoke.

"No one is going to harm those children," she said grimly. "Do you have any firearms aboard this thing? Because I will personally go and shoot those bastards if necessary."

"Calm down Charlie," Summers told her. "If there is any shooting to do, Rob and I will do it. We're both ex-forces."

"Yeah," Rob said with feeling. "I'm with you there boss. It's a shame we haven't got any weapons though. Even the knives in the kitchen are plastic."

"Then we'll just have to do it the hard way. Hands-on."

#

After they had recovered from their initial outrage, Summers suggested they start thinking logically, assess the options and formulate a plan. They had until three in the afternoon when Nimir would come for the children to decide what to do.

Summers asked Jayal how she thought Velan would carry out the instructions of the Atikas.

"He'll take the children for tests and anaesthetize them. He'll remove their brains and put them in containers filled with a liquid solution. They'll be sent to Caranal in a courier. Then I think he intends to put the bodies in a pod, supposedly to bring them back here, but he'll instruct the pod to head out into deep space and then say the intelligence unit must have developed a fault.

Of course, he'll have to say that Mutu, Nimir and I were also in the pod so he'll keep us hidden on our vessel. After such a disaster he'll declare the mission at an end and go back to Vitu."

'What if, when Nimir arrives this afternoon, we just refuse to let him take the kids?' Charlie asked.

"I'm afraid the presidium will stop at nothing to get what they want. They have waited thousands of years for the gene they call the 'supernal' to evolve, and they are convinced it is now present in autistic savant children. If they don't get it from these three children they'll send more vessels to Earth to abduct more children with savant syndrome."

"Just a moment," Toby asked. "Did you know all the time that it was this supernal gene that the Atikas wanted and that Velan's story about finding a way to prevent brain disorders was just a pretence?"

Jayal looked down at her hands miserably.

"I knew that the main purpose of our expedition was to identify the supernal but I was told that we would also be able to detect the faulty genes that cause brain degeneration in your people. And I believed the equipment on our vessel would be able to extract the gene without harming the children. It was supposed to be a mission that benefited both you and the Atikas."

"And it didn't seem strange to you that a surgeon was chosen to lead your delegation?" Toby continued.

"Velan is also a doctor. It seemed logical that a doctor would be needed to perform the tests on the children."

"I think it's safe to assume that Jayal had no part in any deception Toby," Summers said.

"I'm sorry," Toby told Jayal. "I just had to make absolutely sure before we ... go any further."

"I'm not like them, Toby," Jayal said resolutely. "I hope you realize that."

Toby reached across and squeezed her small hand under the table.

"Of course I do," he smiled. "Now, why is this gene so important to the Atikas?"

"Before we get into that, we have a problem to deal with," Summers interrupted. "We can't risk Mutu waking up."