Ammonite Planets (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #1-3 (51 page)

She smiled. “I think we should call it something that suits you – something that would make you feel at home. How about ‘Resistance’, after the time you had to spend in the ship after Atheron had kidnapped you?”

“Hmm. Resistance. That’s not so bad,” he admitted. “At least it isn’t from statistics!”

“It sounds dangerous, and heroic.”

Six preened. “Bit like me then.”

“I don’t think you are dangerous or heroic!”

“I remember. You don’t think much of me at all.” He looked her straight in the face, and she fell silent.

Grace was puzzled. “I don’t know what is wrong with you two. I wish you would get back to normal.”

“We are normal,” explained Six. “Just lack of sleep, I guess. I’ll make sure I have time to rest on board – what was it? Oh yes, ‘the Resistance’”

“I am tired, too,” said Diva rather uncharacteristically. “I will let you take first watch, Grace.”

“Ok. We had better head out to our quadrants then.”

“Sure. We will talk later,” Six agreed, striding into the airlock and pushed at the buttons until the doors hissed closed, leaving the two girls on their own.

IT TOOK THEM three days to find the first of the Sellite ships. It was coming in on a vector from the direction of Xiantha, heading straight for Kwaide. Six was the nearest.

He made sure the Resistance was on an automatic course, and then he signed to Arcan, and ‘showed’ him the position of the enemy ship. Arcan transported him instantly across the intervening thousands of miles of space, and deposited him safely in the stasis hold of the other spacecraft. Six instantly detached a tiny piece from the new orthogel bracelet around his ankle, and deposited it behind one of the consoles, fairly sure that it would remain there totally undetected. In any case Arcan could move it if it were noticed. At least he would now be able to ‘find’ this ship anywhere it went. They were no longer blind.

Six looked around. The layout was exactly the same as that of the Resistance. The weapons should be two corridors down, and to the rear of his current position.

He began to search for the weapon bay, ‘showing’ Arcan his progress. If he were discovered, he wanted to have led the orthogel entity as close as it needed to be to the nuclear warheads. He hoped he would have plenty of time, but nothing had been left to chance. It was too important for any slip-ups.

At last he found it. There were three crated missiles with radiation warnings posted very clearly. There wasn’t much doubt what they were. He shivered. He hated to think of the damage just one of these things could do. And if each ship were carrying three! They would have enough blast to completely demolish all three camps many times over.

He ‘showed’ Arcan the position of the three deadly tubes, and slipped a tiny piece of orthogel under each one. Then he quickly signed on the orthogel bracelet, which had regained its previous size.

“Get me out of here, Arcan!”

In a second he was enveloped in a bubble of orthogel, and back on the Resistance. He breathed out slowly, and then sat down to contact the girls.

“That went really well,” he told them. “I was able to leave small pieces of orthogel under all three warheads, so there should be no problem, when the time comes.”

“It took you forever, nomus,” said Diva.

“I was in and out within five minutes!” he retorted.

“Exactly. It should only have taken you three minutes, according to our calculations.”

“
So
sorry, your huffiness, I’ll do better next time.” He pulled on an imaginary forelock.

“Make sure you do!”

Grace giggled. “You did great Six! I just hope it goes as well with all the other ships – and on Valhai.”

“Piece of cake. Unless Arcan happens to transport us straight into one of the holding cells, of course, or on top of some unsuspecting Sellite!”

“Well, one down and however many to go!”

IT TOOK THEM five more days, alternating the task from one ship to the other, to tag the six Sellite ships currently on a course for Kwaide. Then they left Six in the Resistance to mop up any latecomers, and Arcan transported Diva and Grace, together with the Variance, over to Valhai. The girls thought that they had definitely been given the worst part of the job.

“Trust Six to skive off and take the easy option,” said Grace. “I don’t see how on Almagest we are going to be able to pinpoint all the warheads stored here in Sell. It is a mammoth task. There might be thousands of them, for all we know.”

“There aren’t,” said a voice, and Grace jumped about a metre straight up in the air.

“Don’t DO that! You nearly caused a heart spasm.”

The little globe appeared in front of her, deactivating its blending technology. “Sorry,” it whirred. “I forgot you couldn’t see me.”

“How do you know how many nuclear weapons there are on Valhai?” asked Diva.

“Because I have been following your Sellites around for the last week,” the brain behind the machine told her. “Once I have the blending mechanism correctly adjusted I am invisible to anybody – as you have just seen. And since you decided to leave the Kwaide International Orbital Station before I got there I came back to see how I could make myself useful to Arcan.”

“Big of you.”

“Yes, wasn’t it?”

“So what did you find out?” demanded Diva.

“There are three separate storage depots which you will have to breach,” it said. “I can tell you where they are, but unfortunately I am unable to ‘show’ Arcan any of them yet, so that will have to be your job.”

“Don’t say we can do something you can’t do!” said Diva. “Who would have thought it!”

“It is only a temporary incapacity. Once Arcan has visited me here on the spacecraft we are hopeful that some sort of symbiosis may be attained. I have agreed that you may accompany him, once all these weapons have been located.” There was a definite reluctance in the metallic voice.

Diva raised one eyebrow. “Really? That sounds interesting.” She and Grace exchanged glances. “Will we all fit on board your ship?”

“It was hardly meant to accommodate type 3b life-forms. It would be like trying to fit a giant decipus in a jam-jar. However, Arcan insisted on you all being present, and his wishes must naturally be respected.” The small sphere hummed in a rather dissatisfied way. Grace grinned at Diva, whose eyes were full of amusement.

“We have decided to bring my ship on board the Variance, and then Arcan can visit me, whilst ‘showing’ you all his every movement. He thinks that this way you will be able to experience everything that he does. He says that if he encompasses all of you and the two ships in the same bubble he will be able to allow you to participate.”

“Whatever Arcan wishes,” said Diva. “We will be honoured to visit your ship.”

“I know,” whirred the machine. “When I think how many species have been denied access, only to have to provide it to three vulgar specimens like you.” It seemed almost about to cry.

“Never mind. Look on the bright side,” Diva pointed out to the little machine. “At least Six won’t be actually getting into your tank with you!”

A short burst of static indicated that the machine was having trouble translating the visitor’s opinion of Six. “Grchkkssk! grcksskksch!”

“I couldn’t have put it better myself,” said Diva politely.

GRACE WAS WEARING a full bodywrap and was wearily climbing the outside of the 232
^nd
skyrise, one of the deposits of weaponry detected by the traveler. Cian was hanging overhead, indigo in a dark sky, and she was trying to concentrate on breathing correctly. The little machine was hovering irritatingly around her head as she climbed, and she was fighting a temptation to bat it away.

“Can’t you go any faster?” complained the visitor.

“No,” she gasped, “I can’t.
Will
you stop talking to me please!”

“Why? Can’t you do two things at the same time? Are you
that
basic?”

“I am surreptitiously scaling a skyrise. Don’t you think it might be better to do it silently?”

“Why? The Sellites are all exophobic. They aren’t going to be standing around on the terrace, now are they?”

Grace suppressed a groan. This new alien was very irritating. “Why do you always sound so sure of yourself?” she asked, and then put a weary hand up. “No, don’t bother answering! I already know what you are going to say …”

“… Do you? What?”

“That you are a type 2a.”

“… Most interesting. Perhaps you
do
show some of the characteristics of a type 3a.”

Grace was forced to laugh, and then regretted it, because her mask pack blocked, and she had to fight for breath for a few moments.

“Just because I knew what you were going to say?” she asked.

“Quite. As I said, telepathy is one of the signs of a type 3a progression.”

“Hmm.” She thought of Six’s face if the Sellites were elevated to a class higher than the Kwaidians, and couldn’t resist. “I often know what you are going to say.”

“Interesting. I will have to consult.” The machine subsided into silence, and Grace pulled herself onto the terrace.

“OK,” she said. “Get Arcan to take you in through one of the orthotubes. Are you sure you can open the biolock?”

“I hacked into the system two days ago. It will present no difficulty.”

“Fine. I will wait for you here.” The orb vanished, and Grace moved to an inconspicuous corner of the terrace to wait. She was tired from the climb, but it felt great to be back on Valhai. There was nothing to touch it anywhere she had seen so far, she thought. Kwaide and Coriolis were all very well, and it was nice to have natural air to breathe, and to be able to be outside without a bodywrap. But Valhai – Valhai gave you an idea of the size of the rest of the universe. Just the slate grey and dark purple shades mixed into an inky black. The brilliant colour of Cian– an electric violet, high up in a star-studded sky. The brightness of the stars, which hurt your eyes if you looked at them for long. Nothing could compare to Valhai. She knew that she would always miss it if she were away, and felt a moment’s intense sadness that, because of everything that had happened, she was unlikely to spend much time in the future on the planet. She gave a sigh.

The biolock opened with a hiss of escaping air, and she moved towards the entrance of the skyrise. No time to think about all that now. She had a job to do.

DIVA WAS CREEPING slowly into the Valhai Voting Dome, trying to make herself as small as possible. The bulk of the nuclear warheads were stored here, and the security measures were comprehensive. She had volunteered for this part of the job because she knew it was by far the most dangerous. Just getting into the Dome was proving almost impossible. She wondered how Six was getting on above Kwaide. So far they had met no problems marking all the weapons on board the Sellite ships, but she knew that they couldn’t assume that such good luck would hold forever.

She had managed to get through the various doors to the chamber itself thanks to the visitor, who had kept a careful watch over the previous few days, and had passed on to her the codes which would open the doors. Now she was in the central chamber. According to the visitor, she simply had to skate around the edges of the room, and take the corridor which would lead down into a subsurface vault which was acting as a depository for the remaining weapons. This was where she was going to have difficulty: the rooms were guarded by electronic surveillance at all times, and even the visitor had been unable to detect all of the systems used. She slipped down the dark corridor towards the vault, hardly daring to breathe. They only had one chance to get the job done. If she failed, there would be a general alarm raised, and the Sellites would realize what was going on. Arcan would be forced to act, and Diva wasn’t sure how Grace’s two missions were going, or if there were more ships en route for Kwaide.

She became aware of a whirring sound in her right ear, and batted at it with her hand. She connected with something dense and painful, and realized that the visitor had sent his little machine to join her.

“Ouch!” She sucked the base of her hand. “Cian! That hurt!”

“You should have known it would be me.”

“Probably. Now shush, I am trying to figure out how to incapacitate through the surveillance system.”

“All you have to do is emit a jammer.”

“Yes! If I could do that I probably would have—hang on a minute, can you do that?”

“I can, but I am uncertain as to whether any further intervention would be justified or not.”

“Then,” Diva gritted her teeth, and heroically resisted the temptation to chip a few slivers off the machine with her dagger, “I shall just have to do it myself.”

“If you are capable. I am not confident of the outcome.”

“Neither am I. So if you
can
help by blocking the sensors, now would be a good time to do it.”

“No, I am sorry. Dessia informs me that I have already exceeded my brief in helping you to detect the position of the armament, although they say that they are willing to overlook it since it could be construed as helping Arcan. They tell me that I may only observe from now on.”