What have I gotten myself into? Van looked blankly ahead, at the holo projection of the stars, presumably as seen from where they were docked to the Farhkan station.
Ready?
I’m ready, Van affirmed. As ready as he’d ever be.
Eri, strap in and stand by for departure.
“Yes, ser. Ready for departure.”
The ship grav dropped to nil, and the fusactors went from standby into power-up mode. Van could sense all that, now, as the commander ran through the checklist.
Farhka Station Two, Coalition ship Elsin, standing by for departure.
Ship Elsin, we are releasing locking. You are clear for departure.
Desoll offered just the faintest touch to the steering thrusters, and the Elsin eased away from the Farhkan station.
Through his implant, Van used the scanners and monitors to study the alien station—a creation that hung in orbit around the moon of a gas giant, well away from the star’s habitable zone. The station was trapezoidal—effectively a four-sided truncated pyramid—whose surface blended into the visual background and which radiated no energy. By the time the Elsin was only a handful of klicks away, even the ship’s instruments were having a hard time discerning the station.
Are their ships like that? Nonradiating?
Yes. You can’t find them unless they’re using projected screens or drives. I understand they have internal screens inside the outer hull as well.
Van watched until they were well clear of the station.
You have the conn, Commander, Desoll said. You need a little practice. Just move her up to full nets and full acceleration. You need to have a feel for full power…
I have the conn, ser.
As he linked more deeply with the Elsin, Van felt the shock drop away as he began to enjoy the responsiveness and the sheer power of the ship, a vessel with the grace and maneuverability of a corvette, but with the power of a light cruiser, if not more.
Even though Desoll had used piracy as a rationale, the Elsin had far more than it needed to escape renegades. Van did not want to ask why the Elsin—or the ship that would be his—would need such power. Not yet.
But, sooner or later, he would have to. That he also knew.
Chapter 42
Van and Desoll stepped through the golden exit doors of the shuttle terminal and out into blazing white light. Van squinted. The midsummer sun of Sulyn was bright, but the light falling across Kurti, capital of Meroe, was even more brilliant—and it was only midmorning, and they were under a roofed portico of pale greenish white stone.
“Bright,” Van murmured, realizing the inanity of the comment as he spoke.
“At midday, it’s hard to see anything without bioadjustment or dark goggles,” Desoll said.
As they walked, Van looked ahead for groundcars or shuttles or some form of transport. He could feel the slightly heavier gravity of Meroe, and the thicker and more humid atmosphere. He wondered how Emily was taking the heavier gravity. He hoped he’d have time to stop and see her, perhaps after they took care of the financial necessities.
“No groundcars?”
“They don’t use them in the cities. There’s a guideway induction rail plaza ahead.”
A series of small domed cars, each able to take ten people, waited through an archway.
Desoll flashed a card past the scanner—twice. “I’ve paid for you as well. We’ll get you a card account here, and then you can add systems to it as you go. I’d have preferred to do that first, but Miryam is meeting with a potential client this afternoon, and I did want you to meet her.”
“You’re the managing director.” As he entered the lead car behind the older man, Van glanced around, but no one was near them. When the door closed and the guideway car began to move, he asked, “How many systems are on your card?”
“Over a hundred. The cards are linked to your implant. I have yours, but it’s not activated. They just look like a standard datacard, but the advantage is that no one else can use it. Your ship will have the records of your card, and you can create a duplicate if yours gets lost.”
“I see.” Van was half-stunned by the thought that IIS datacards were casually accepted in hundreds of systems. He glanced out the windows of the small car. Even with the polarized shielding, everything was bright. The guideway was flanked with neatly shaped bushes with needlelike leaves. Beyond the bushes was a space of grass, and then a park on either side of the guideway, with winding walks composed of white stones. Beyond the guideway park were buildings, structures set in clusters. Both the number of buildings in each cluster and their spacing, height, and size varied greatly, although none looked to be more than ten stories in height. A number, here and there, resembled step pyramids, but others were just featureless shapes. None had projections. From what he saw, Kurti was certainly unlike any other city Van had visited.
The guideway car curved off the main guideway and along a much narrower strip of parkway, westward toward a set of three step pyramids, one of a pale golden stone, another of a deep green, and the third of green-tinged white. The car stopped, and the doors opened. Van followed Desoll along a walkway bordered by low spiny plants with blazing yellow flowers. The walkway led to a square arch at the base of the greenish white step pyramid. As he walked closer, Van could see that the building did have windows, but they were disguised by holo projections that created the image of solid stone walls.
The shade of the entry was a relief to Van. Beyond the vaulted entry was an inside colonnade, flanked with greenery. Desoll followed the bricked walkway for another twenty meters before turning left and approaching a trapezoidal door that slid open into a recess as the two approached.
A dark-skinned, muscular woman almost as tall
