The Catalyst (Targon Tales) (13 page)

"This looks familiar," Nova said.

"This is a Naiyad. As was the being in the tank we sent. They are very closely related to Myrids and so that is what we declared when we asked for an escort. This is the last Naiyad we have here."

Nova and Seth approached the tank for a closer look at the creature. It hovered near the glass and they saw two large, lidless eyes stare back at them. The Naiyad’s skin was a pebbled tan but the underside of the boneless limbs shifted from shades of pink and purple to blue as it moved. This tank allowed for more movement than the small shipping container had and they notice that some of the limbs ended in three finger-like appendages. It tapped those against the inside of the box in a rhythmic pattern.

"She’s acknowledging your presence," Celessa said. "They use touch to communicate even very complex messages. We have not been able to decipher much of it."

"Clever of you to ask for help from Air Command to get these shipped around." Nova said, resisting an urge to tap the glass in return.

The Delphian frowned. "We should have tried to find the funds for a direct flight. Something less attractive to pirates. But the best we could afford was a captain of a private ship on Magra. He would not come into Pelion space. So that’s when we decided to just hire a shipping company. But their transport was substandard, as was the guard they hired for the job."

Nova started to object but Seth had placed a hand on her arm. "It appears the shipper contacted some... rebels who had probably been waiting for just such a shipment to leave this area."

Celessa’s delicate brow furrowed and she observed Seth like a particularly simple-minded lab creature. "Don’t be absurd, Centauri. We may be naive when it comes to knowing how to ship a Naiyad across Trans-Targon, but we know very well what is at stake. They were waiting for exactly
this
shipment to be sent out. Your Colonel Drackon has done everything short of searching every moon over Pelion to try to shut us down. Call him a rebel if you wish; he’s far worse than that."

"Colonel Drackon!" Nova exclaimed. "That’s the commander of the Union base on Feyd. How would he be involved in all... this?" Her gesture included not only the tank here in the room but the laboratory as well. "And why?"

"Son of a Rhuwac," Seth smiled grimly.

"What do you know about this?" Nova said.

"About this? Nothing. About Drackon? Plenty. The Caspian who sent you that present on Targon is working with him. Or so I suspect."

"What? You mean that Pe Khoja? Tharron’s man on Magra? Surely you’re not saying that Colonel Drackon is a rebel!"

"I might be. Or at least in bed with them."

"What does he want?" Nova asked, her question for Celessa. "Why does he care about these... these Naiyads?"

"At this point I imagine he wants you. He is looking to destroy the catalyst. I’ll tell you what we know." Celessa walked over to the tank and placed her hand onto a metal plate on its side. The creature drifted toward her and brushed its undulating limbs against the inside. The Delphian closed her eyes. A few minutes passed in silence.

"The Naiad is asking who you are," she said finally. "And why you’re upset. I’ve told her that you have come to help."

"Delphians are telepaths?" Nova whispered.

Seth shook his head. "Not really. Some of them can... connect with certain species, though. Physically. That plate on the tank looks interesting."

"Have you come to help, then?" Celessa said tonelessly.

"How can we help?" Nova said. "We just came to return your catalyst and to ask about it. It will kill me unless I continue to take medicine."

"It needs to get to Naiya. Only there will you be able to remove all of it."

Seth exhaled sharply. "Lovely. It can’t be done here?"

"No. It will replicate in Nova’s system indefinitely if you remove only some of it. But once you expose a blood vessel to the matrix on Naiya, the catalyst will naturally gravitate to that medium. Like holding a dry sponge to a drop of water." Celessa turned her head slightly toward the Naiyad, listening. "You will return the catalyst to Naiya."

"Oh? Do I hear a ‘please’ in there?" Nova said.

Celessa opened her eyes. "I think that’s more of a question. They sing in their thoughts. She is not easy to understand."

"She? How can you tell it’s a she?"

Seth rolled his eyes at Nova. "How did this Naiyad come to be here? Why are you doing this?”

"Last year, before the solstice on Delphi, one of our expeditions found a new keyhole. Of course, they investigated and were able to span a vast distance. They should not have entered this new breach, but they did, anyway. They found Naiya, a wonderful world of deep oceans that has no water, no air. Just light and sound and these creatures, these Naiyads, and their sub-species. And water ash, a mere byproduct of their oceans and of little value to them. It helps to regulate temperature and certain light waves but beyond that it has no purpose."

"Not to them," Seth said.

"Indeed. When our explorers returned they made the grievous error of telling a Union official about their find. The news quickly made its way to your governors. They will obliterate Naiya in their greed for water ash. It is our fault. It is our task to right this wrong."

"And so you developed this catalyst."

"We’ve done little else since then. We have two other labs working on it. Another was destroyed a while ago. Twice we were able to return to Naiya to bring some of their people with us. This is the only survivor. We use their… hmm, blood matrix to create the catalyst. She knows that her life is also in peril here."

"So by altering the more valuable water ash properties, you render the planet useless to outside interests," Nova said. "Our own Commonwealth merchants as well as their competitors. We’d suspected that might have been the purpose for it, but couldn’t figure out your motive."

"We tried to reason with them," Celessa said, her hand still on the tank to include the Naiyad in the conversation. "We explained that Naiya’s oceans contain sentient life in wonderful variety. Their intelligence rivals that of many of our surface species. But we should know better by now that the ways of your Union are not the ways of Delphi. You need wealth for your wars against the rebel and you need wealth for things we cannot even fathom."

"Your Clan Council on Delphi was not able to convince them to leave Naiya alone? Maybe even claim Naiya for Delphi?"

"The Council does not know," Celessa said, clearly uncomfortable with this admission. "If they find out about the consequences of our actions they will only use this to further restrict our explorations off-Delphi."

"They would," Seth sighed.

"And we don’t lay claim to planets, inhabited or not. So we tried to undo this error by ourselves, far from Delphi. Unfortunately, we have so little understanding of your people that we openly set out to develop the catalyst. Only in these past few months have we learned to hide our laboratories."

"And Drackon has been routing them one by one. To protect the Union’s water ash supply." Seth’s eyes were on the creature in the tank. Its eerily large eyes studied them with an alien intelligence that seemed to miss nothing. He touched his fingers to the smooth surface of the interface. He longed to be able to spend time in its company, conversing with it the way the Delphian was able to. "How many of them are there on Naiya?"

"Millions."

"And they cannot co-exist with outsiders? If this water ash is worthless to them, I mean."

"Did you know Targon once had a native population? Driven underground now. Bellac used to know peace. As did K’lar Four and Aram. Now they are changed forever by your Union of Commonwealth Planets. Delphi is barely keeping your people off our shores." Her cold blue eyes turned to Nova. “You and your Centauri overlords pretend some pointless quest for your primordial ancestors among these worlds, what you call Trans-Targon. But you want more than to find some ancient brothers among us. What can these Naiyads do to withstand your machines and planes and the products of your presence on their world? They do not even carry that genetic fragment you consider so sacred. You will have to see Naiya for yourself to understand what I mean."

They were interrupted when Kiely entered the Naiyad’s room. "We’ve got a positive, Celessa," he said. "The Human’s got the catalyst."

"Wonderful!" Celessa exclaimed. She looked happily at the creature in the tank and they appeared to exchange some words.

Seth watched the technician leave. "If what you say is correct and the Naiyads can extract the catalyst then all we have to do is to take Nova to Naiya?"

"Technically."

"What do you mean?"

"The only way to get to that planet is via an uncharted and still dangerously unstable keyhole. You will need a very good spanner to get through the reach and back again. And a ship capable of such jumps."

"The Dutchman has a feeder interface," Seth said with a sidelong look at Nova. She glared at him. Like his crossdrive upgrade, that interface was cleared for use only on Air Command Eagles.

"You just hope you have the shields to match that, Mister," she said.

Celessa raised a hand to get their attention. "That may all be pointless unless you also have a spanner. The spanner that was to have taken the box back to Naiya was also on the
Dyona
."

"A Delphian?" Nova asked.

"Yes, of course."

"I don’t think he died up there! The pirates took a few people off the ship before the air went bad. I’m sure one of them was the Delphian we picked up on Pelion. Tall, skinny, long blue hair?"

"You just described half of Delphi’s population," Seth pointed out.

"His name was... is Caelyn, " Celessa said. "We thought him dead! Lost with the ship. The others will be so relieved to hear that!" She smiled wistfully. "He... he is very dear to me. Where did they take him?”

“I have no idea.” Nova glanced at Seth who said nothing.

 Celessa’s shoulders slumped. “We don’t have anyone else who can open the keyhole to Naiya. He was supposed to navigate that private ship through it. We’ve lost contact with that pilot, too.”

Nova looked up at Seth. “You could find out where they keep him, if he’s still alive.”

“Nova, I–”

“You can?” Celessa said, sounding hopeful. “How?”

“He’s got friends in low places,” Nova said and poked a finger into his ribs.

The Delphian lifted a fine blue eyebrow. “Rebels?” She frowned and the Naiyad moved about its tank in agitation. “Look, if you two are rebels we might have the same goals against the Union but don’t draw us into your schemes. We have enough troubles of our own.”

Seth raised his hands. “Nothing like that,” he said quickly. “We’ll head over to Magra and see if we can find out some things. People talk, maybe I can pick up some rumors.”

“Please, you must get this catalyst to Naiya. I can’t see any other way for us to save Naiya from your people.” Celessa turned her attention to the tank. After some unheard exchange, she removed her hand from the plate and the Naiyad slowly sank from view. “Forgive me. That sounded harsh. And of course you have your own reasons for going there. If you can... If you can find Caelyn and return him safely, I... we would surely be indebted to you.”

Nova and Seth walked back to the exit of the building to retrieve their pressure suits. She was slow to climb into hers, still awed by Celessa’s revelation about the Colonel. “Do you think it’s really possible?” she said.

“What?” Seth replied, unusually morose. “That nobody gives a damn what happens to the Naiyads or that we can find a misplaced Delphian boyfriend in any one of a dozen rebel holds?”

Nova studied his face, surprised and concerned by his tone. “Yeah, that,” she said finally and reached up to fasten his collar clamp. “We’ll get there, don’t you worry.”

“Getting there isn’t the problem.”

Celessa joined them. “I have told the others that there is hope for Caelyn. They are as encouraged and excited as I am. He will be able to communicate with the Naiyads if you get there.”

“
When
we get there,” Nova said firmly.

Celessa helped them fasten their suits securely. “I need you to understand how much this means to us. Whether you succeed or not, your kindness will be made known among our people. It can be weeks before we can make another attempt at bringing the catalyst to Naiya. If we can find another spanner to help us. By that time it may well be too late.”

Nova was about to reply when they were interrupted. “Celessa,” Kiely leaned into the air lock. “Two more ships are coming up this way. Not any of the mining companies. Either your new friends there brought trouble or trouble is coming to meet them. And us.”

“Let’s go,” Seth jammed Nova’s helmet over her head. “We can head them off.”

“We can get below ground here,” Celessa suggested. She looked back into the lab where her colleagues were frantically snatching up display screens and equipment. “This building sits atop some of the mining shafts. If we can move the tank...”

Nova shook her head, knowing that Seth would not leave the Dutchman exposed on the surface. She also suspected that, like her, he was eager to inflict a little damage to Drackon’s agents by now. “Close the hatch and take cover. Go!”

Celessa nodded and hurried inside. Seth and Nova waited impatiently for the room to depressurize and then jogged across the open space between the building and the Dutchman. Seth signaled the plane to lower the ramp and they rushed inside, again nervously awaiting pressurization before racing into the cockpit still wearing their suits.

“Get the guns,” Seth snapped as he prepared the Dutchman for a speedy takeoff.

Both of them engaged their neural interface to communicate with the Dutchman and focused their thoughts on its sensors to await the approaching plane. They heard one of the Delphians on the moon calmly ask for identification of the newcomers and then repeat his request a few moments later. There was no reply.

“Two cruisers, no Union markings or signals,” Nova reported. “Armed to the eyeballs,” she added.

Seth lifted the Dutchman from the moon’s surface and hovered over the laboratory building. Again, they listened to the Delphian’s attempts to contact the ships. It was not long before the real-video screens showed the liftplane class cruisers that, like the Dutchman, were used most often as private conveyance or by small transport companies. And rebels.