control surface, but yielding faint guidance to her. Yes, this first is a control constellation which means death. Transfiguration. Yielding to chaos. But still, neither set of control symbols would move. The controls are jammed, she realized with a sinking feeling. Her focus turned to the second set.
This is birth; borrowed memory told her, rejuvenation. Images of a blossoming flower invaded her vision- opening, wilting, dying, budding, opening, wilting- no, not just any bloom, but a perennial. But why Gretchen grasped the totality of the puzzle in one shining instant. Many details were lacking, but the shattered pot suddenly fell together in her hands. What cold calculating horror. She knew what must be done. Hummingbird is going to be displeased with me.
Anderssen laughed aloud, drawing a strained look from everyone arrayed around her.
NEAR THE SUNFLOWER
“Time to safety limit?” Kosho felt a great lightness steal over her as the Naniwa slipped past the last of the gargantuan wrecks. They were once more in open space, with nothing between her battle-cruiser and the distant speck of the artifact but vacuum. Somewhere ahead the ionized clouds of two Hayalet -class battleships marked the edge of the thread-weapon guarding the Sunflower. She hoped they would be able to use that-somehow-to their advantage in dealing with the rest of the Khaid. Her attention snapped to Helsdon, who was still crouched over his consoles, stylus tapping intermittently as he tried to tune the sensor array to detect the quantum distortions caused by the alien weapon.
Her other earbug was filled with bursts of chatter from out-system, where Pucatli’s sensor booms were trying to capture and decipher the enemy battlecast.
“The Khaid have counterattacked,” Oc Chac reported. He, too, was watching the sensor plot closely.
Thai-i Olin laughed nastily. “If what I’ve heard is true, these Maltese would match Xipe himself in flaying them to the bone.”
“The Khaid assault anyone who assaults them,” Susan replied softly, her mind filled with disquiet. “They are ambitious. Destroying even one Order ship would win the survivors enough respect among the Kovan planets and stations.” Those men on the little ship, she suddenly realized, were Order Knights. The Moulins… Hummingbird arranged all this!
An instant of pure fury was ruthlessly suppressed. Susan breathed in sharply, steadying herself. Hummingbird arranged everything. Even the Khaid. Everything. The deaths of all those Mirror scientists and their support ships. He used me. He even used Sayu! Gods of mountain and stream, his ambition is without limit! He’s traded an entire Fleet battle-group-all of my dead crew-a super-dreadnaught fresh from the yards for that thing.
In the threatwell, the Chimalacatl loomed, growing steadily larger with every passing second.
“Up speed a quarter-point,” she spoke sharply at Olin, startling the Mexica officer. “ Sho-sa, prepare a combat team-if any of our marines are left alive-for a boarding action.”
No one is going to miss a spare Judge amid all this slaughter. No one.
THE THREAD
Gretchen turned to Sahane, her hands light on the console, fingertips floating a millimeter over the softly glowing hieroglyphs. “Holy One, it is blasphemy for me to complete this task. This is the abode of your Gods and you are their priest. Stand by me, give me your blessing, and I will rouse them from the long sleep. Let them guide your people again, if they wish.”
The Hjo goggled at her; suspicion, fear, and slowly growing wonder lighted his eyes. “You lie, toy. You will… you will… what will you do?”
“Look around, Holy one. You saw the bodies of the fallen at the last door. The Guard Imperial fell here-to the last man-defending this place. The enemies of your people could not pass that portal, not against their sacrifice. The traitors fled, unable to reach this”-once more she spread her arms, taking in the entire panorama of the accretion disk, the pylon, and the endless rows of cradles-“sanctuary.” She leaned towards him, voice fading to barely a whisper.
Almost against his will, Sahane stepped within an arm’s reach. Gretchen continued. “But your Gods did not die. They are sleeping far below. Those Hjo who remained faithful to the end did that much. They sent the Wise One to safety.”
Sahane’s fur rippled erect. His voice was hushed, barely audible even over the comm. “He… he is here?”
Anderssen met his eyes and nodded assent. “Why else should the Banner Crimson and Black fly here, save he was present?” And perhaps he was, she thought, remembering the Lord Serpent. Perhaps he was. “Will you help me lift him up, into the land of the living?” She tilted her head towards Lojtnant Piet. “Their message is for him, you know. They seek his help, to be guided, as The People are guided.”
Sahane looked at Piet in puzzlement, and then he nodded as understanding slowly took hold. “I… I see. I did not know-that you believed as we believe.”
“All,” Hummingbird interjected very smoothly, before Piet could answer, “seek Guidance.”
“Then what can I do?” Sahane’s nervousness was palpable.
Anderssen took his hand, feeling a cool shock as her fingers passed through the aura of glyphs surrounding the young alien. “We will move these constellations like… so…”
Codes unlocked at the priest’s touch and the great machine trembled awake. The Thread emitted an audible wail. Enormous energies, long held in abeyance, were released. Mechanisms spun to life, twisting the pattern of space, dragging at infinity like Herakles against the Promethean chain.
Gretchen heard someone’s swift, measured breathing rasp on her suit comm and the soft clink of metal on metal.
We’re out of time.
Far far below, at the mouth of the abyss, two structures moved-one up, one down. The consoles flared alight with warnings, flashing glyphs and symbols of all kinds. Sahane goggled at the displays, dark eyes filled with the hot glow of the lights. Simultaneously, his exo bleated a warning just as Anderssen’s fingertips-no more than a millimeter from his body- adjusted the drifting pattern of glyphs which controlled the alien’s body armor. The z-suit helmet suddenly detached with a thonk! as the retaining ring popped loose. The Hjo screamed, clawing at his neckring-atmosphere warmer than the sub-freezing atmosphere in the chamber rushed out, frosting the inside of his helmet solid white.
Her blood surging with adrenaline, Anderssen took the first chance for protection and heaved herself over the console just as Lojtnant Piet, shouting in alarm, lunged forward to catch Sahane. The other two Templars turned hastily towards the near stairway, their guns coming up. Hummingbird hurled himself to one side, but too late as they both squeezed off a burst. Flechettes pocked the nauallis’ chest and shoulder, punching him back. His footing lost, Hummingbird toppled down the steps, directly past the Jaguar Knight crouching at the edge of the platform.
Koris sidestepped the Judge nimbly. One powerful arm pitched a bundle of short-fuse grenades onto the platform. Lojtnant Piet turned awkwardly, Sahane’s armored body clutched to his chest. The Hjo’s z-suit was rippling into spiked bio-armor while his clawlike hands struggled to replace the helmet. The grenade-bundle exploded less than a meter from Piet and Sahane in a stunning blast of flame and armor-piercing shrapnel.
The Hjo bio-armor crumpled. Sahane’s helmet flew backward and the plasma-flare boiled the priest’s flesh from his skull. The blast flung Piet and the corpse into the Thread. Like the bronze tablet, both Templar and Hjo were diced neatly in half before disappearing from sight.
The blast also slapped aside the other armored Templars. One hurled forward down the steps to crash into the Jaguar Knight in a tangle of arms and legs. The other slammed against the edge of a console, but bounced back, shaken but unharmed. The Templar vaulted the nearest control panel and skidded down the side of the pylon, showing fabulous dexterity in remaining upright. Two more marines opened fire on the Order Knight as he alighted, but neither was clad in battle armor.
