Chapter 10
SIX WAS BORED out of his skull. He had been forced to read the piloting manual to try to help pass the time. He thought that Diva would have teased him mercilessly if she had known. Well – at least he would know how to drive a spaceship if he needed to. Unfortunately this one had a couple of problems. In the first place, the automatic on-board computer wasn’t working. According to the manual the computer made any sort of interplanetary travel much easier. Secondly, there was something wrong with the fuel feed, and although he could get the engine to give small bursts of energy when necessary, a ‘manoeuvre blocked’ sign came up every time he tried to get out of orbit from around Nomus.
So here he was. Stuck in orbit around the dead star. Great! Just the thing for a no-name like himself! And he might be here for a long time. He had enough supplies to keep himself alive and the crew in stasis for a year. After that things would go steadily downhill. Now that would be fun, wouldn’t it? He gave a long sigh. Even sitting in a bubble on Valhai had been better than this.
He wasn’t even sure his patch through to Diva had worked. All he got back had been an incomprehensible static. He hoped Diva had been able to hear him say he was in orbit around Nomus, but he couldn’t depend upon it. She may not even have realized that the communication came from him. The effort had fried the circuits of the little spaceship’s communication electronics, so there would be no repeat. He gave a heartfelt sigh, and tried to turn his thoughts to his home planet of Kwaide. It helped, he found, when time seemed to stop.
THE PROXIMITY ALERT in the Variance went off after about eight weeks with an unmistakable alarm tone which refused to silence itself.
“Arcan! How on Sacras can I get this thing to stop screaming in my ear?” asked Diva, who had skipped that part of the manual.
“I did tell you that all the information in the manual would be useful,” said Arcan mildly.
“You did,” acknowledged Diva. “I took no notice.”
“I can tell.”
“Bully for you!”
“Just accept them on the automatic screen with the 2697321 code, and the sound will cease.”
Grace put the instructions into effect, and bent to examine the characteristics of the spacecraft detected.
“Is it Six?” Diva asked.
“It might be,” answered Grace. “It is certainly Sellite – though that is no surprise, since the Sellites never gave interplanetary technology to anybody else. And it can’t be on an asteroid trip, because it is a trader and is sitting in orbit around Nomus. It could well be Six.”
“It will be.” Diva was sure. “I knew we would find him. He will have to be forever grateful to us.”
“Knowing him, I wouldn’t count on that. He will probably be furious it took us so long to get here.”
“He’ll fall on our necks.”
Grace hesitated. “He might—” she agreed, “—but then again, he might not.”
“He’d jolly well better be grateful. If he thinks I just sat through eight weeks of learning space lore just to have him snap at me he’s got another think coming!”
“WHAT TOOK YOU so long?” demanded Six the minute he saw Diva.
Diva spluttered. “Wh-what in Lumina do you mean … ‘so long’?”
“Hello-o?” Six opened his eyes wide and twisted his head in disbelief. “… Arcan? Remember? Couldn’t you have asked Arcan to transport you here?”
“For your information, Six, Arcan can’t travel to places that neither he nor anybody else has seen. So no, we couldn’t have asked him to transport us here. And no, thanks very much, we haven’t had a very nice journey out either. Not that you care, of course, no-brain!”
“Moron!”
“Cretin!”
“Dummy!”
They fell on each other after that and exchanged a fierce hug, but pulled apart almost straight away. Six went over to Grace and gave her a hug too, this time a little longer than that of Diva.
“Grace,” he said, “missed me?”
She smiled. “Of course I have. Been pret-ty boring around here without you. We have had to fall back on reading the flight manual to keep ourselves sane.”
“You too!” He grinned. “Bet you thought your studying days were over when you got out of the bubble, Diva. Still, you never know when piloting a spaceship might come in handy.”
“Diva was all for throwing it out of the air lock,” said Grace, “but I managed to restrain her.”
“And Arcan?”
“I am here, too, Six. It is good to hear your voice again.”
“And yours!”
“Indubitably. You are not alone on this ship, I perceive?”
Six shook his head. “Atheron and company,” he explained.
“In stasis?”
“Thankfully, yes. I found it hard enough existing here for eight weeks on my own. Atheron yapping away at me would have made it impossible.”
Arcan managed to transmit surprise. “How did you manage to elude your captors?”
Six told them the abridged version of his feat, and basked for a pleasant moment in the resultant acclaim.
“Nah,” he said modestly, “it was nothing really.”
“If it had been me,” said Diva, “I would have—“
“Yes, your mulchiness? I suppose you would have done it all so much better than I did?”
“Well, of course I would, but I wasn’t going to say that. What I was going to say is that I wouldn’t have bothered putting Atheron and his minions into stasis. They would have found out for sure just what makes up the surface of Nomus, if I had had anything to say in the matter!”
“You’re just saying that!” Six flashed back. “You wouldn’t have done anything of the sort!”
“Would so!”
“Would not!”
Grace looked at the mutinous faces in front of her, and decided to step in. “All right, leave it alone, will you? Let’s just be happy we are all back together again, shall we?”
There was audible mumbling from each side of her, until both parties finally fell silent. Grace gave them a severe look each and then started to go on. “What are we going to do now?” she asked. “Should we let Arcan transport us back to Valhai, or should we take the Variance?”
“The what?” Six said automatically.
“The Variance. The name of our space trader.”
Six looked revolted. “Variance? What on Sacras …?”
“From statistics. Diva named it.”
“I know where it is from. I’m surprised Diva could remember anything about statistics. She’s tried hard enough to forget everything else.”
“I think it is a perfectly fine name,” said Diva, bristling.
“Well, you would, wouldn’t you? Stands to reason. Personally I can’t see the point of calling a ship after a statistic.” He gave a shrug.
“No, you wouldn’t, of course. It just happens to be about numbers not being where they ought to be …” Diva raised her eyebrows eloquently.
“If that refers to me, where does your royal numbness think I ought to be?” Six narrowed his eyes. “I might be just a no-name from Kwaide, but at least I know better than to name spaceships. As if! That’s a girl thing.” He gave a sound that reminded Grace of the warthog they had met on Kwaide. “Girls!” he echoed.
Grace was forced to put a hand onto Diva’s wrist and press it meaningfully, causing the Coriolan girl to horizontally translate her glare from one subject to the other. “Enough!” Grace repeated. “How are we going to get back to Valhai?”
“Kwaide, you mean,” corrected Six.
“Well, Kwaide then. Wait a minute – why Kwaide?”
“Because that is where we are going to need two spaceships in the very near future.”
“Ah – you’re planning on stealing the two spaceships.” Grace nodded. “Have you thought that the Sellites might just take exception to that?”
“No, I haven’t.” Six was irritated. “I can’t be expected to think of everything, can I?”
“But why do you have to steal them in the first place?”
“It’s as clear as the sunny side of Valhai. There are more and more refugees pouring in each day. We can’t expect Arcan always to be available. He’s doing all this for nothing as it is.”
“I am glad you have said that, Six,” said Arcan. “I already told you that I am not prepared to continue as general pack vaniven to half the system. I don’t mind helping out in an emergency, but they always seem to want more. I was thinking of telling them all that they would just have to do it on their own.”
“There you are then,” said Six. “We need to set up our own supply line, using more conventional methods.”
“And has it occurred to you that the Sellites might just decide to come on over and get their mega-valuable space traders back, nomus?”
“Yes,” he admitted. “I don’t quite know how to get around that one, I’m afraid.”
“Oh well planned, no-name!” Diva gave him a sarcastic bow.
“So do better, lady numbskull – if you can!”
“Certainly.” Diva drew herself up to her full height, and there was a silence.
Six grinned. “Well?”
“It may take me some time.” She informed him.
“You don’t say!”
Arcan decided it was time to interrupt. “Let Grace think about it,” he said calmly. “She is the one who is good at that sort of thing. If you want to take both these ships back to Kwaide we are going to have to mend this one – and that will involve finding out just what is wrong with it in the first place. Perhaps the three of us could be getting on with that while Grace considers what to do.”
It took Grace a few hours to come up with some semblance of a plan to present to the others.
“You might not like it,” she warned them.
“If it gives me two ships I shall,” assured Six.
“It should, but … there is a cost.”
“Cough it up, then.”
Arcan was confused. “Why should she cough? Grace, are you unwell?”
Grace shook her head with a giggle. “Six, you know you shouldn’t use expressions that confuse Arcan. Stop it.”
“Put a sock in it, you mean?” he asked.
“Where do you want to put the sock?” Arcan asked. “Do you require more clothes, Six?”
“No he doesn’t,” said Diva, “Ignore him, Arcan! Go on, Grace!”
Grace bit her lip. “It just seems that … the trouble is … we need someone to negotiate with, and …”
Six and Diva came up with the same answer at the same time. “Atheron!”
Grace nodded. “I’m afraid so. He is the one person we have access to, he is influential, and he knows the value of negotiation. Plus, he will be anxious not to lose his position amongst the Sellites, so he may be amenable to a few concessions in return for a major cover-up about what happened here. Of course, all this is really just the price of his freedom – and transfer to Valhai. He can invent some lucrative contract with the Elders on Kwaide which necessitated the sacrifice of two ships or whatever he wants. It doesn’t really matter, as long as he signs them over to us.”
The other two looked at Grace with awe.
“It’s brilliant!” breathed Diva.
“That awful old man is going to get away with it again!” Six made a disgusted face. “I was going to leave him in stasis until he rotted!”
“Don’t exaggerate, Six, you were going to do no such thing!” Diva told him severely. “He may know where your sister is being held.”
“That is the other advantage,” said Grace. “I thought we might be able to convince him to tell us where Eight is as well – we just have to figure out what Atheron wants.”
“He wants to rule Valhai,” said Six. “He wants Mandalon’s job.”
Diva thought for a moment. “Then any power he can grab will be attractive to him. If we can offer him a way out of this that will make him more powerful he should leap at the chance.”
“He already has all the details I know about the rebels,” said Six. He told them about the interrogation with quenera root.
Grace nodded. “That may be enough to give him a considerable advantage if he can get back to Valhai. He will know the value of information.”
“Then I say we wake him up as soon as we know if we can fix this obsolete wreck and keep it flying long enough to be useful!”
ATHERON CAME OUT of stasis with no ill effects, somewhat to Six’s disappointment. The whitebeard looked around himself with interest. He seemed unfased by the varying changes in his circumstances, although he looked wary when he spotted the menacing way in which Six was holding his kris.
“Yes?” he said, as he took in the fixed way the three friends were staring at him.
Six took a step towards the man, and then stopped, making a clear effort to hold himself under control. They had agreed that Grace was the one to lead the negotiations.
Grace explained what they wanted. It was immediately apparent that Atheron would have sold Valhai itself in exchange for his own freedom, although the Sellite tried to cover up his relief. Grace enumerated the things they wanted, and saw that the Sellite was already considering how to put the agreement to his own advantage. He began to make counteroffers, to save face.
Both Six and Diva became bored by the positioning, and left to spar with each other on the upper deck. Grace was by far the best of the three at this sort of thing.
They attacked and counterattacked, parried and practiced. Since there were no wooden imitations, they were forced to use proper weapons, which had the advantage of making the sport really dangerous. Diva’s dagger could slit a jugular in one swift swipe, and Six’s kris with its jagged blade and carved steel handle was equally lethal.
“I am out of practice,” admitted Six, as Diva managed to slice an infinitesimal piece of skin off his right forearm. “Ouch! That hurt!”
“Yes. When we get back to Kwaide you need to take a few classes from Cimma. She will soon get you into shape again.”
“How is she?”
“In her element. They all call her ‘Magestra Cimma’ now. She bullies them mercilessly. They adore her.”
“And what do they call you?” He found himself panting as she forced him all around the deck.
Diva laughed. “The firstcomers told them that I am a Valhai, so now they all call me Valhai Diva!”
“And me?” He waved to her to stop, and sat down on the nearest stool to rest. She circled around him, harrying him with the point of her dagger, unwilling to pause.
“They wanted to make you a general in the army, but Cimma wouldn’t let them.”
“Why not? I would make a superb general.”
“She didn’t think it was suitable—”
“Well, thanks Cimma! Huh! General Six – sounds great!”
“—so they decided to name you First Six instead.”
He pulled a face. “First Six? – First Six? What kind of a name is that? It is still just numbers.”
“Yes, but now you are both ordinal and cardinal.”
“It’s a cardinal sin, if you ask me!”
“Very funny,” she said. “Perhaps they recognize you as a first class idiot!” She stabbed at him again, getting a bit too close for comfort and making him snap at her.
“Leave over, will you, Diva?”
GRACE FINALLY HAD all the details down on paper. And she knew where Six’s sister was being held. Atheron wanted immediate transportation to Valhai by Arcan, and she had been forced to concede in the end, but the Kwaide revolution could count two spaceships amongst its arsenal. They could safely head back to Kwaide now in the starships. But she knew that Six would not stay. When he heard where Eight was he would be asking Arcan for immediate transport. She sighed. She could see that she was going to end up taking the two space traders back to Kwaide on her own. It seemed she was always in for the lonely option these days.
She went up the metallic stairs to the observation platform. The other two looked towards her expectantly.
“It went well,” she said. “Eight is in Benefice. She is staying with Jalana.”
There was a stunned pause.
“You mean to tell me,” spluttered Six, “that all the time I have been worrying my head off about Eight she has been living with Seven – or Jalana, or whatever she calls herself now – in a nice comfortable apartment?”
“I wouldn’t call that apartment comfortable,” said Diva.
“Not up to your usual standards, your ladyship? No facilities, perhaps? Not enough gold plating on the taps?”
“It was built for half a dwarf.”
“No doubt it would fit into your bathtub back on Coriolis?”
“Actually it would. Our batht—”
“—The point is, that I have been worrying that she was ill, and it turns out she has been living it up in Benefice!”
“Isn’t that a contradiction? Living it up and Benefice in the same sentence?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Sure. Champagne and sweetfruits all day, no doubt.”
“She might even have fallen for some … some … Elder!”
“A fate worse than death,” agreed Diva.
“I mean it!”
“I can see you are overjoyed to hear that she is not being coerced,” said Diva dryly.
“Damn you Diva!” Six stood up and strode up and down the metal plates.
“Now it’s all my fault!” Diva threw up her hands in despair.
“I probably have to call in advance to make an appointment,” he grumbled.
“Well, I wouldn’t do that,” Grace said. “The Elders would no doubt turn out in force to detain you. You are the most wanted unmentionable on the planet.”
“She doesn’t need me.” He kicked out at the shiny hull plating.
“Ask her yourself,” Grace told him.
He looked up quickly at that.
Grace and Diva exchanged glances. “Arcan can take you directly into that flat,” Grace said. “We have all been there, he can ‘see’ it through us. And he can maintain a bubble around you while you are there. It should be safe enough.”
“Arcan!” Six looked around, trying to gauge if the entity was there, was listening. Sometimes it was hard to tell just where Arcan was, whether he was listening or not.
“I can take you there now if you want,” the voice came back.
Diva sheathed her precious Coriolan dagger and stood up. “I will come with you,” she said. “If Grace will be all right here – on her own.”
“Would you like me to transport you with the two space traders to Kwaide?” Arcan asked Grace.
“They would be very heavy for you, surely?”
Arcan shimmered, his equivalent of a laugh. “Hardly!”
“But I thought you said you weren’t to be used as a pack mule?”
“I will always make an exception for you.”
Grace thought about it. It would be great to have some instantaneous transport back to Kwaide, but it would be even better to have some trained pilots for those spaceships when they got to the orbital platform. She realized that this was an opportunity that they simply couldn’t pass by.
“I will be fine,” replied Grace. “Just send me some trainee pilots from amongst the refugees, will you, Six? Arcan can bring them back. I’ll use the trip back as a training exercise.”
“Sure.” Six went out.
“That’s a great idea.” Diva told her. The two girls looked at each other and the Coriolan girl shrugged. “I don’t know what it will take to make Six see that his sister betrayed him,” she told Grace. “but none of us will be safe until he does.”
“He isn’t going to like it.”
Diva sighed. “No, he isn’t.”