personality than the serjeants. I’ve got to know a few of them, and they’re still too human for this.”
“You think there’s going to be another Liberation?”
“Sure. Nobody’s come up with another method of kicking the bastards out of the bodies they’ve stolen. Until that happens, we’ve got to keep them on the run. I told you: show no weakness. Pick another planet, maybe one of those Capone infiltrated, and start rescuing it before they take it away. Let them know we’ll never let up chasing their asses out of our universe.”
“Would you join that next Liberation?”
“Not a chance. I’ve done my bit, and learned my lesson. This is too long. You wanted a story about what Exnall was like, you came a day too late. We still had some of the possessed around yesterday, waiting for zero- tau. They’re the ones you should have talked to.”
“What did they tell you?”
“That they hate the Liberation the same way we do. It’s wearing them down, they haven’t got enough food, the rain doesn’t stop, the mud climbs into bed with them each night. And ever since Ketton took that Ekelund bitch away, their organized resistance folded in. Now it’s just gone back to instinct, that’s why they fight. They’re losing it, because they’re human. They came back here because they were determined to end their suffering, right? That’s the ultimate human motivator. Anything to escape the beyond. But now they’re here, where they thought they wanted to be, they’ve got all their old flaws back. As soon as they became human again, it becomes possible to beat them.”
“Until they take their whole planet out of the universe,” Tim protested.
“Fine by me. That removes them from interfering with us any more. A stalemate in this war means we have won. Our purpose is to prevent them from spreading.”
“But even the war isn’t an end to this,” Hugh said. “Have you forgotten you have a soul? That you will die one day?”
Elana’s claws clacked irritably. “No, I haven’t forgotten. But right now I have a job to do. That’s what matters, that’s what’s important. When I die, I’ll confront the beyond fair and square. All this philosophising and moralising and agonising we’re doing, it’s all bullshit. When it comes down to it, you’re on your own.”
“Just like life,” Hugh said with a gentle smile.
Tim frowned at him. It was most unlike Hugh to offer any comment on death and the beyond; the one subject he (strangely) always avoided.
“You got it,” Elana boomed approvingly.
Tim said goodbye, and left her monitoring the zero-tau pods. “Live death like you live life, huh?” he chided Hugh when they were far enough away to be outside the range of the mercenary’s enhanced auditory senses.
“Something like that,” Hugh responded solemnly.
“Interesting person, our Elana,” Tim said. “The interview will need some tight editing, though. She’ll depress the hell out of anyone who hears her ranting on like that.”
“Perhaps you should let her speak. She’s been exposed to the possessed for a long time. Whether she admits it or not, that’s influenced her thinking. Don’t slant that.”
“I do not slant my reports.”
“I’ve accessed your pieces, you dumb everything down for your audience. They’re just a compilation of highlights.”
“Keeps them accessed, doesn’t it? Have you seen our ratings?”
“There’s more to news than marketing points. You have to include substance occasionally. It balances and emphasises those highlights you worship.”
“Shit, how did you ever wind up in this business?”
“I was made for it,” Hugh said, which he apparently found hilarious.
Tim gave him a bewildered glance. Then his neural nanonics reported his communications block was receiving a priority call from the Fort Forward studio chief. It was the news that the Confederation Navy had attacked Arnstat.
“Holy shit,” Tim muttered. All around him, marines and mercenaries were cheering and calling out to each other. Trucks and jeeps sounded their horns in continual blasts.
“That’s not good,” Hugh said. “They knew what the effect would be.”
“Damnit, yes,” Tim said. “We’ve lost the story.”
“An entire planet snatched away to another realm, and all that concerns you is the story?”
“Don’t you see?” Tim swept his arms round extravagantly, encompassing the occupation station in one gesture. “This was
Cochrane saw it first. Naturally, he called it Tinkerbell.
Not quite limber enough to stay in a full lotus position for hours on end, the hippie was sprawled bonelessly on a leather beanbag, facing the direction Ketton island was flying in. With a Jack Daniels in one hand and his purple sunglasses in place he possibly wasn’t as alert as he should have been. But then, none of the other ten people sharing the top of the headland with him saw it.
They were, as McPhee complained later, looking out for something massive, a planet or a moon, or perhaps even Valisk. An object that would appear as a small dark patch amid the vanishing-point glare and slowly swell in size as the island drew closer.
The last thing anyone expected was a pebble-sized crystal with a splinter of sunlight entombed at its centre arrowing in out of the bright void ahead. But that’s what they got.
“Holy mamma, hey you cats, look at this,” Cochrane whooped. He tried to point, sending Jack Daniels sloshing across his flares.
The crystal was sliding over the cliff edge, its multifaceted surface stabbing out thin beams of pure white light in every direction. It swooped in towards Cochrane and his fellow watchers, keeping a level four metres off the ground. By then Cochrane was on his feet dancing and waving at it. “Over here, man. We’re here. Here boy, come on, come to your big old buddy.”
The crystal curved tightly, circling over their heads to their gasps and excited shouts.
Delvan stared at their visitor in absolute awe, a hand held in front of his face to shield him from the dazzling light. “Is it an angel?”
“Naw,” Cochrane chortled. “Too small. Angels are huge great mothers with flaming swords. Tinkerbell, that’s who we’ve got here.” He cupped his hands round his mouth. “Yo, Tinks, how’s it hanging?”
Choma’s dark, weighty hand tapped Cochrane’s shoulder. The hippie flinched.
“I don’t wish to be churlish,” the serjeant said. “But I believe there are more appropriate methods with which to open communications with an unknown xenoc species.”
“Oh yeah?” Cochrane sneered. “Then how come you’re already boring her away?”
The crystal changed direction, speeding away to fly over the main headland camp. Cochrane started running after it, yelling and waving.
Sinon, like every other serjeant on the island, had turned to look at the strange pursuit as soon as Choma informed them of the crystal’s arrival. “We have an encounter situation,” he announced to the humans around him.
Stephanie stared at the brilliant grain of crystal leading Cochrane on a merry chase and let out a small groan of dismay. They really shouldn’t have let the old hippie join the forward watching group.
“What’s happening?” Moyo asked.
“Some kind of flying xenoc,” she explained.
“Or probe,” Sinon said. “We are attempting to communicate with affinity.”
The serjeants combined their mental voice into a collective hail. As well as clear ringing words of greeting,
