Between Darkness and Light (125 page)

Zayshul stared at him. “What aren't you telling me?” she asked quietly.

Indecipherable static filled the room as Giyarishis made a gesture of regret.

“Shall I ...” began Ghidd'ah.

“Do it,” Zayshul said. “I'm going to check with Lieutenant Banner about this Fastheal.”

 

“He's trying a sleep cure,” said Banner when Zayshul had brought him up to date. “It's only used in field hospitals in an emergency. Can you wake him?”

She shook her head. “He's gone into another comalike state, but not as deep as the last one yet.”

“Then you'll have to do as he asks. Fastheal really depletes the body's reserves. He'll need some kind of liquid food, plus vitamin and mineral supplements—you'll also have to keep him from dehydrating. In fact, I need to be there.”

Zayshul stood up. “I'm sorry, that isn't possible.”

“You gave me your word I could see him as soon as he woke,” he said, ears flicking sideways in anger as he rose from the common room table. “I'm entitled to see him. You may be a doctor, but you aren't trained as fully as I am in treating our people.”

She hesitated. “I'll speak to the General once we've got Kusac settled again,” she said, turning to leave.

“You've no right to deny him proper medical attention,” Banner angrily called out after her as she walked to the door.

“I'll speak to the General,” she repeated as the door slid open. “Believe me, Lieutenant, none of us want him to come to any harm.”

“You not interfere!” said Hkairass angrily as he stalked into Giyarishis' quarters on the hydroponics level. “Leave Hunter to his rage, and sand-dweller to guilt you have engineered he feels. Better they deal themselves with it. You will not manipulate Hunter's dreams!”

“Leave,” said Giyarishis, barely looking up from the small device he was calibrating. “Guilt now mainly sand-dweller's own. Concentration I need to accomplish the Camarilla's will.”

“You will do as I command,” said the older TeLaxaudin, advancing, his draperies rippling around his spindly legs. “I here, I see the true natures of involved. Better without them we are. Sooner they exterminate each other ...”

“Enough!” Giyarishis interrupted angrily, looking up at him, lenses swirling rapidly. “Decision made by consensus. One individual will not override it. They will combine against reunification of old sand-dweller Empire!”

Hkairass snatched the device from him, examining it briefly before tucking it in a concealed pouch at his waist. “You will desist all activities against me! Immediately authorize my attendance on Hunter to undo what you have begun, and cease preventing me from accessing Unity here! If not, action I will be forced to take against you,” he said, the low humming that underscored his speech taking on a menacing tone.

“Abused Unity you did!” Giyarishis' voice thrummed. “Think I am unaware shooting of Hunter due to your control of guard?”

Hkairass' eyes locked on his and his constant movement stilled—even his draperies hung motionless. “Your time in field has softened your brain,” he said at last. “Gone native you have, as I predicted. Renounce leadership of this mission to me and I will speak well of you to Camarilla when we return,” he said, his tone more reasonable. “Your device for influencing Hunter I have. Accept defeat, as Camarilla will have to do.”

“I think not,” said Giyarishis quietly, looking away. “Unity you want? Then have, but not my command.” The nanites in his brain responded instantly to his thought, sending signals to the Unity network, removing the block on Hkairass' personal mental pattern.

As he felt the older male's mind enter, he braced himself mentally, blocking his thoughts off from the other. He was well aware of the risk he was taking, and exactly what depended on the outcome. If the device that Hkairass had predictably taken from him failed to work, the backlash would have him committing a murder.

Suddenly it occurred to him, what if, now he was part of Unity again, Hkairass
didn't
try to deactivate the device? What if he relied on a battle of wills to force his hand? Before he had time to worry even more, with a thrumming sound of triumph, Hkairass reached for the small unit at his waist.

Thin bolts of energy, generated by his device, began to flicker and crackle across the older male's body, spreading out along his limbs. Hkairass let out a high-pitched squeal that rapidly ascended to an almost inaudible level that made Giyarishis wince before it was abruptly cut off. The energy continued to flare, branching into multiple lines until the TeLaxaudin was completely trapped in its web.

His limbs were drawn closer to his body and his head dropped to his chest as, slowly, he began to drop down to his haunches and fold up into a small, compact shape. With a final crackle and spitting sound, it died away to nothing, leaving Hkairass sitting motionless on the floor. Moments later, every pore on his body began to exude a milky fluid.

Giyarishis forced himself to move and darted forward to retrieve his device, making sure not to let the fluid come into contact with his own flesh. Shaking, he backed away until he reached the pile of cushions by his low table. The cocooning process would take several hours, by which time it would completely encase Hkairass and it would then be safe to move him.

He began to laugh, more in relief than with any humor. By the time Hkairass emerged from the cocoon, his gender would have changed and he'd no longer be male. He hadn't been completely sure how close to his change Hkairass was, which was where the element of danger for himself lay. Obviously his change had been close, otherwise it would have been impossible to trigger it prematurely. Then it would have resulted in the other's death just as surely as if the device had failed to work properly. At least he now had several weeks free of any interference from the leader of the Isolationists.

As he settled down to monitor the sand-dweller, it occurred to him he really ought to contact the Camarilla and inform them of what had happened, but he decided against it. The prospect of propping Hkairass helplessly in the corner of his bedroom for a week or two was too great—a small revenge, perhaps, but one he intended to savor.

“Nothing!” said Kaid, tail swaying jerkily as he paced the common area room where he and those not on duty were gathered. “Three days we've been scanning this area, and there's nothing here!”

“We'll find it,” murmured Carrie from her easy chair. “It's only a matter of time.”

“We don't have that long before K'hedduk makes his move to ally with M'zull,” said Dzaka as his father approached the low table again.

Squatting down on his haunches, Kaid again examined the star chart Toueesut had printed off from the database on the
Tooshu
. “It has to be there,” he said, pointing to the colored dot. “Kij'ik they called it. It's the most logical place for it to be—near a gas giant and not too far from the system's Primary!”

“Have you accounted for drift in the last fifteen hundred years?” asked Rezac.

“Of course! It can't have drifted by that much,” he snapped before instantly regretting it. Lowering his ears in apology, he glanced at the youth who was his own father. “Sorry,” he muttered.

“Forget it,” the other replied, getting up to fetch a snack from one of the wall units.

“Could it be masking itself?” asked Carrie.

“Not by enough that we wouldn't at least find some trace of it. We know he's got one cruiser class ship, we should at least be able to find that!”

“Not if it's inside the Outpost,” said T'Chebbi, looking up from filing her claws. “We know it's bigger than Haven.”

“It's not going to be that large,” said Rezac. “Think of the cost of staffing and maintaining it.”

“Cost is irrelevant,” trilled Toueesut from his chair. “They had an Empire to fund it in their times, therefore cost would be a factor they were not considering in the least.”

“He has a point,” said Carrie.

“Irrespective of that, the Outpost itself would have telltale emissions we'd be able to pick up.”

“Maybe not,” said Rezac. “We know it wasn't at the heart of their network, in fact it was on the outer edges. That being the case, perhaps working out its purpose would help us locate it.”

“We did all that on the journey out,” said Kaid, pushing the map aside and getting to his feet to resume pacing.

“Then we've got something wrong,” said Dzaka calmly. “Because if we had it right, it would be here. Its purpose this far out of the populated areas and the shipping routes would mean it was a reconnaissance base, one intended to remain undetected.”

“If that's the case, we could cruise around this area for months and never find it,” said Kaid bleakly, stopping to look at the view outside on the monitor screen that had been installed during the refit.

“The
Tooshu
contacted ship carrying Valtegan Ambassador and requested sending of complete data banks of information regarding old Empire,” said Toueesut. “Unfortunately we will have to be returning to it to access this information and to be updating the
Couana
with it. Too much there is to be sending it to us—too large a chance of the transmission drawing unwanted attention to ourselves there is.”

“Maybe drawing attention to ourselves is what we need to do,” said Rezac. “If Kezule knows we're in this area, he may contact us himself.”

“You don't know Kezule,” said Kaid, turning away from the screen. “Unless he wants to contact us, he'll just sit it out.”

“What about trying to search for him mentally?” suggested Rezac. “You've felt him once. We have three Leska pairs here.” He gave a brief laugh. “A triad of Leskas! We should be able to scan for him and find him.”

Carrie shook her head. “We've tried. L'Seuli said that Kezule's note specified Kusac was to bring no telepaths. Given he's got a telepathic cub there, and we know he hates telepaths, he's bound to have the place filled with psi dampers.”

“Don't know that for sure,” said T'Chebbi, inspecting the nails on her right hand. “Where he get them?”

“The cubs told us he had them wearing psi damping collars,” said Kaid. “He'll have one on Shaidan, and if he's figured Kusac has his Talent back, he'll be wearing one.”

They heard a rhythmic pounding in the corridor outside and as one, looked at each other.

“Ashay,” smiled Carrie, glancing over at the door as the noise came to an abrupt stop and the door slid open.

“News is coming from
Tooshu
,” said Ashay, the lips curling back from his snout as he ducked his long snakelike neck to enter the room. “Captain Shaayiyisis says they are sorting Valtegan data now. Big job it is being, will be day after tomorrow before it is being usable by us. We return then,
Tooshu
says.”

Ashay stopped beside Carrie to settle onto the floor on his haunches, pulling his thick tail round his feet out of everyone's way. “Not be sad, friend Carrie. Finding them we will be,” he added, gently resting one large clawed hand on her shoulder. “Detailed star charts of this region they be having is for sure. Then finding Outpost will be easier.”

“I know we will,” said Carrie, reaching up to pat the teenager's reptilian hand. “Maybe Kisha and you are both right, Kaid. We're getting nowhere here, and with detailed maps we can find out where all the star systems with gas giants are in this sector. We could well be at the wrong one.”