Interrogating her cousin and even an annoyed Ars under compulsion revealed the same results as Via's interview with Mitis. Someone--almost certainly Clari's mater--had altered the memories of everyone who had seen Kaitlyn's body and made them forget the encounter with the powerful mind magic.
And so it was that Via found herself striding into the Chief Communicator's office with a bravado she didn't feel.
Sententia Exaudibilis sat primly on the long curved chaise in her office's window nook. Clari's mater, a strawberry blond with the pale skin of her Ancient pater and half-Ancient mater, was a stately woman who always wore her sapphire laurel on full display. Unrestricted by the jeweled collars most people wore to both obscure and adorn the tracings gleaming beneath their skin, Sententia's laurel blazed like a river filled with blue lightning. It glowed along her collarbones, casting cold light along her regal jawline and frosting the crystal faux windows behind her an icy blue.
Via claimed the nanites in the room and wove them through the woman's brain. "Do not use any magic while I'm here."
Sententia lowered the teacup she'd lifted to her lips as though she'd not just been compelled. "Good afternoon, Via. What brings you here, my dear?"
Via doubted the Chief Communicator was unaware of her investigation. Impatience propelled her across the office's glossy blue tile, and she sat in one of the chairs across from Sententia, ignoring the woman's arched brow. "You're going to have to answer some questions under compulsion," she said. "I have special authority from my mater."
"Well then," Sententia said dryly. "Clari does often say you're all business and no pleasure." She extended a graceful hand to indicate the tea bowl on the low table between them, where delicate purple ebriamen blooms floated in the hot water alongside a ladle. "Would you at least like some tea?"
"No, thanks." And risk you poisoning me? Yeah right.
Via kept her expression professionally neutral, though the woman's narrowing apple-green eyes made her suspect the Communicator could guess her thoughts. For once, Sententia couldn't read her mind, though. Clari was usually polite enough to keep out of Via's head, but the Chief Communicator had always loved answering Via's unasked questions and responding to her unvoiced remarks.
Today, the woman only folded her hands in her lap and fixed Via with a bland smile, the one she always offered the public during the colony's evening status reports. "Very well." She offered a practiced laugh, bright and airy. "Interrogate away then, Detective."
"Answer my questions honestly and without holding anything back," Via said. "Did you tamper with Mitis's memories? Or Clari's?"
"No." Sententia sipped her tea, lips curling in a small smile. "And yes."
Via scowled. This was going to be more difficult than she'd expected. Interrogations under compulsion were only as good as the questions she asked. And Communicators were notorious masters of wordplay and psychological warfare even without their powers. "You messed with Clari but not Mitis?" she clarified.
"Indeed."
"What about Ars and my cousin Valde?"
Sententia placed her teacup on the plate balanced atop her crossed legs. "I didn't tamper with their memories either, only Clari's." Green eyes glittered as she peered back up at Via. "I'll tell you what happened if you promise not to tell her."
"I can't promise that," Via said firmly. Her eyes narrowed. "And you'll tell me regardless of whether or not I promise."
Sententia sighed. "Alright, no need to be dramatic." She placed the plate with its teacup on the low table, then straightened and laced her fingers in her lap. "Yes, I snipped a few of Clari's memories. I'll be frank." Her lips lifted in a cool smile. "Can't help but be otherwise, right?"
"Go on," Via prompted.
"Ivan and I were having an affair, and Clari caught us." No hint of remorse touched the strawberry blond's face. "She threatened to tell her father and Ivan's wife. She was going to show them the security footage." Elegant shoulders rose in a shrug. "So I had her erase it instead and disable the system so I could come and go in peace. Then I relieved Clari of the burden of knowing." She frowned, and a hint of true concern touched her face. "It had been eating her up."
"You stole your own daughter's memories," Via said flatly, "so you could have an affair?"
Sententia's green eyes narrowed. "I did what I needed to do to save two marriages and protect my daughter's heart. Ivan and I broke things off soon after. There was no harm."
"No harm?" Via could not keep the frustration coiling in her chest from her voice. "Because you decided to hide an affair, I can't review what happened the night that Ivan died!"
"Yes, I am sorry for that." She didn't sound sorry at all. "He was a good man. He deserves justice, and I hate that my selfish mistake makes it harder for you to find his killer." The blond shook her head. "But I had nothing to do with that dirty business."
"Are you sure?" Via's jaw clenched so hard she could barely grit out the next words. "Perhaps you altered your own memories alongside Clari's and Mitis's. Erased them or changed them so you could answer me honestly."
Sententia's lips quirked. "Perhaps. But if so, I don't remember." She smiled as Via fumed. "Now, do you have further questions for me?"
"No." She rose stiffly to her feet. "Thank you for your time."
She wasn't sure yet what she believed. But she didn't believe for an instant that the Chief Communicator was innocent.
And she didn't think the woman cared whether or not Via thought she was guilty.
***
The lava tube pulsed with an irregular rhythm that grew to a cacophonous faltering heartbeat as Via and Clari neared the cavern within.
Via squinted as her best friend's lips moved. The echoing boom ate the strawberry-blond's words. "What?" she shouted.
Clari leaned closer, hands clasped over her ears. Judging from her wince, they weren't too successful at blocking the din. "What is that?" she yelled back.
Via shrugged. "I don't know. I don't remember this sound in my grand ma's recording."
"Me neither." Clari's ball of glowing nanites floated further down the tunnel, revealing the juncture that opened into the cavern beyond. The strawberry blond glanced nervously at Via, and her eyes widened. "He's doing it, too."
Via followed her gaze and stared. At her shoulder, the xenos pup drifted back and forth within the magical net caging him, more active than she'd seen yet. His fuzzy dark-blue tentacles quivered in an odd rhythm, and a fluttering pulse rose from him in the same irregular tempo drifting up from below.
Shadows shifted, gathering just beyond the glow of the nanite light. And a xenos floated into the tunnel.
"Eternal Radiance!" Clari flinched back and bumped into Via.
Two more xenos joined the first, then ten, throbbing like dying hearts with a strange tremble of their tentacles.
Then silence descended as the strange pulsing sounds ceased.
Via gulped as another ten xenos poured into the tunnel. She slowly lifted her hands. "Yes, that's right," she said, trying to keep her voice low and soothing even though she didn't know if the creatures could hear, let alone understand. "You found each other."
The xenos gathered into a thickening throng, filling the end of the tunnel like a cloud of dandelions. Only these deceptively fluffy dandelions had sharp tentacles that could cut to the bone. She hoped the creatures wouldn't attack if she made no threatening movements. If she was wrong, she and Clari would die like her grandpater had years ago, so badly flayed that their bodies would be barely recognizable.
Holding her breath, Via coaxed the nanites confining the pup past her so that he drifted mid-air in front of the xenos swarm. She couldn't help but notice he was far smaller and darker than the others, and her heart began to pound.
"I hope this little guy is the same species or whatever as the rest of you," she said. The awkwardness of addressing a swarm of aliens that might be completely mindless made her cringe, but they weren't attacking yet, at least. "I don't know where else to bring him. My grand ma told me to take care of him though, and I figure that the best way to do that is to reunite him with others like him." She drew a deep breath and dispersed the nanites holding the pup. "Go on, Data. Go home."
The swarm surged forward, earning a yelped "Via!" from Clari.
Then the pup darted into the cloud of outstretched tentacles and disappeared. Rippling, the swarm slowed, then shifted to churn around something in their midst.
One by one, they broke away and returned to the cavern.
Via blinked as a large pale-blue xenos drifted after the others, a hint of dark blue tucked within the lighter fluff.
"Alright," Clari squeaked. Her breath heaved beside Via as she held a hand to her heart. "Great. Eternal Radiance, let's go, please."
Via nodded with a choked chuckle. Neither of them turned their backs as they began retreating up the lava tube's sloping passage toward the surface and their waiting lander.
"Now that that's done," Via said when they finally felt safe enough to turn around, "about that other thing..."
Clari crossed her arms. "Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"Well, I'm not." The strawberry blond frowned at her. "This investigation is really dangerous, Via. If the Chief Terraformers are really responsible for this, and--" She swallowed, and when she continued, her voice was softer. "--And if my ma is involved, then you're going up against some really powerful sorcerers and political interests. And if your mater is in on it, too..."
"I know. That's why I think we need to do this." Via clenched her hands at her sides. "You need to stay safe, Clari. I can't drag you into this. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if something happened to you."
Her friend reached for her hand, coaxing her fingers open and squeezing gently. "I want you to stay safe, too. If you get into a mess, I might not be able to help you if I don't know what's going on."
"If I get in a mess and don't make it out alive, then you will need to survive," Via said firmly. "You'll need to be the one to get the truth out."
They had already gone over the plan on the arcology's farm level in hushed whispers. With the Chief Communicator meddling with people's minds, including her own daughter's, there was too great a danger that she might try to snoop around in Clari's head to see how much Via knew. Via was protected from the woman's sorcery during the investigation, shielded magically by her mater's authority, but Clari was vulnerable. If Sententia learned that Clari and Via already knew about Kaitlyn's discovery and the Chief Terraformers' actions, the investigation and their lives could be in danger.
So Via had asked Clari to modify their memories. She would forget about Clari's involvement, only remembering that her friend had tried and failed to access security footage for her.
And Clari would forget everything. Her involvement. Kaitlyn's discovery. Everything would disappear from her mind, replaced by false memories until the morning that the Trellis was scheduled to rise. Then the memories would return. Hopefully, they wouldn't be needed, because that would mean that Via had failed to stop the Trellis and bring the killer to justice.
"I still don't like it," Clari said. She squeezed Via's hand. "But if this is what you think needs to happen to bring justice to the dead, then I'll do it."
"Thank you," Via said quietly.
They sat down in the spore tower forest surrounding the cave, leaning against the lander and opening flasks of ebriamen. Above, Trappist-1E's three neighboring outermost planets traversed the starry sky. With crimson oceans and ice-crusted landmasses, they resembled bloodshot eyeballs. Most colonists now referred to them as the Eyes instead of their official designations.
Are they really alive, somehow? Via bit her lip. Are they sentient? Watching?
She lifted her flask to the trio of planets. "To you. I hope you're worth it." She and Clari tapped their flasks together and drank as the Communicator's softly humming nanites rose around them.
Via blinked as her head spun for a moment, then smiled at her best friend. "Thanks for coming out here with me to release the pup. I don't know why my grand ma gave him to me." Her heart ached at the lie. She wished she could tell her best friend everything, but it was too dangerous. She'd never felt so alone before.
Clari smiled. "Happy to do it. I wonder if he'll be able to find others of his kind." She shook her head ruefully. "They're not very smart, poor things. More like plants or fungi than animals. But maybe they have a way of locating each other."
Via smiled back awkwardly. "Yeah." She stretched, then climbed to her feet with a groan. Her muscles burned like she'd been hiking or something, and she nudged her internal nanites to ease the minor discomfort. "Well, let's get you back home, shall we?"
"Just me?" Clari asked as she climbed to her feet as well.
Via nodded. "I have one other thing to do tonight before I go home and hit the sack."
"Want company?" Clari smirked at the starry sky. "The eternal night's still young!"
Chuckling, Via shook her head. "No. Official business."
Clari wrinkled her nose. "All work and no play."
Via's heart ached as Clari echoed Sententia's words. Was she making the right decision by not sharing her suspicions with her best friend? She bit her lip as she led the way through the lander's portal, which sealed seamlessly behind them after they entered.
A few minutes later, she flew alone, the Starlit Arcology's glittering black facade fading into the starry night-side sky as she turned away from the viewport. Once she reached orbit, she commanded the lander's nanites to accelerate, and the vessel shot around the planet from hemisphere to hemisphere.
Within the hour, the red sun crested the planet's edge and the Sunlit Research Station nudged her senses. She calculated the lander's atmospheric reentry, and twenty minutes later she coasted over the winding branches of green spore towers and black spiceweed leaves to the sparkling day-side research station.
The roof of the white nanite tower yawned open below her as the lander slowly drifted downwards. As the roof sealed above the descending vessel, the Sunlit Station's crystal walls rose around it. Black and glittering, they mirrored the exterior of the Starlit Arcology half a world away.
The station brushed Via's senses, showing her an open space in the vast launch bay amid dozens of landers scattered around the larger USS Sublime Light cryo-ship. She guided her vessel into place on the glossy black deck.
As she exited the lander, for a moment it was like stepping into an empty starfield. Black crystal reflected the glittering dark walls and ceiling of the cavernous bay, giving the impression of standing in outer space. Only the landers glowing ghostly white around the steel-blue spherical cryo-ship disrupted the illusion.
She brushed her senses over the Sublime Light and nodded as the nanites she controlled passed through the tiny starship like a sieve, reporting it vacant. The Ancients must have relocated to the station's habitat wing after their celebration. With a mental nudge to the station's looming presence in her mind, she squinted into the darkness.
Above and below her, the stars in the ceiling and floor began to shine brighter. A glowing white line flared to life between them like a constellation, lighting a pathway through the bay toward a distant door. She followed dutifully, brainstorming what she needed to say to the Ancients as she walked.
Don't just pounce on them with a billion questions, she cautioned herself. They haven't heard the news yet. Grand Ma and Ivan were their colleagues. Their friends. Eternal Radiance, with the way Grand Ma talked about them, they were more like family to her than her real family, sometimes. I need to break the news gently.
As she walked down the station's winding black corridor, summoning the ship's manifest to see where the eighteen Ancients were lodging, her belly churned with growing anxiety. She'd never had to notify someone of a death before, let alone the death of one of her own loved ones.
How did Mater do it? She nibbled her lip as she walked up the gently sloping hallway into the habitat wing. Even as her mind raced and fretted, her feet followed the path with the ease of familiarity. The Sunlit Station was the Starlit Arcology's twin, mirroring its layout even if its crystalline color scheme was reversed.
Via frowned as she reviewed the manifest. The records showed that the Ancients had all left their quarters forty-six hours ago and relocated to the station's experimental arboretum level.
And had not left since.
Ice swept through her veins. She caressed her awareness over the hallway's black walls and coaxed the nanites to shape a lift to bring her to the arboretum faster. Her heart pounded in her chest as a door opened like a black hole in the starfield. She stepped through the portal, and the walls closed behind her.
The platform beneath her feet started to rise, winding its way upward through ceilings, floors, and walls and around rooms and equipment. As she neared the arboretum, her dread grew.
The platform slid to a halt, and sudden alarm speared her mind, trapping the breath in her chest. Like electricity blazing through thick clouds, the station's warning flashed through her awareness, along with knowledge and instructions: A deadly chill filled the room beyond. Without protection, death would claim her in minutes. The walls would not open to release her onto the frozen level until she protected herself.
Heart in her throat, she coaxed her internal nanites to help her body resist extreme cold and wrapped herself in a thick cloud of external nanites. She was no Terraformer who could adjust air temperatures around her, but the microscopic machines should generate enough of a magnetic field on their own to lock in heat for a time.
She hoped.
After a moment, the walls--apparently satisfied with her protections--opened.
Fog and white light flooded in to meet her, along with a wave of intense cold. Another warning from the station blossomed in her mind; she could only withstand the chill for about twenty minutes with her current protections.
Ice crunched underfoot as she stepped into the arboretum, and her growing dread crystallized into horror.
Dead. They're all dead.
*~*~*
CHAPTER ARTWORK
*~*~*
Sententia, Clari's mater
The xenos swarm
The lander in the spore tower forest
The Sunlit Research Station