It turned out that I didn’t have too much time to dwell on my misgivings. The Sean bot returned a few minutes later holding the Kryrk. The real Kryrk.
It was larger than I thought. Sainecourt had estimated its length at less than a meter, but it looked to be a full meter long. Maybe even longer. And it was as thick as my fist.
“Can I touch it?” Chiraine asked.
“Of course,” the Sean bot said. “I’ve done some scans of the artifact and it’s quite sturdy.”
Both Ana-Zhi and I moved closer to Chiraine as she studied the Kryrk.
It was shaped like a crescent, but the arc was gentle—almost like a rounded boomerang. I ran my finger along the Kryrk’s top surface. It was made of an odd material. Not quite metal, but smooth and hard with a translucence about it. I didn’t know if it was my imagination or not, but it almost looked like faint little motes of light flickered within the crescent.
“If this is the Kryrk, what the hell did Yates take?” Ana-Zhi asked.
“A rocker arm from an old Flieger engine I found in a parts warehouse. It was roughly the same size and shape.”
“The Mayir are going to be pissed as hell,” Ana-Zhi said.
“That’s the idea,” the Sean bot said. “Let’s get going. I’ll explain on the way to the shuttle hangar.”
I had no idea if the Sean bot’s plan would work, but he told me he knew Yates well enough to bet on the traitor’s greed. So we all rehearsed our parts. It turned out that only Ana-Zhi would have a speaking part, though.
The shuttle hangar was much smaller than the landing decks we had been in. It was draped with power cables and cluttered with mech stations, cargo crates, and repair bays.
“Watch your step,” the Sean bot warned.
At the front of the hangar stood an ancient shuttle, no more than a half dozen meters long. It was a boxy craft that reminded me of the small cargo barges you might see at a small-time orbital dock on Lekkadabra or Ardova.
“Okay, now I’m scared,” Ana-Zhi said. “Would you look at this thing? It’s ancient.”
Chiraine looked it up and down. “Yeah, the Yueldians were not really known for their shipbuilding.”
“That’s pretty obvious.”
“Well, we don’t have many other options,” the Sean bot said. “All aboard.”
Ana-Zhi and I carefully carried my dad’s body into the interior of the shuttle while the Sean bot moved into the cockpit and began running pre-flight diagnostics. On a vessel this small there was no artificial gravity, of course, so we set about securing everything—especially my dad’s body. There was no room for the sled, but we lugged the LVX on board, as well as some other gear, and the Kryrk, of course.
The Sean bot had installed a comm unit, but it was only a short-range unit, given the power limitations of the shuttle. I hoped it would work well enough for the Sean bot’s plan.
“What kind of engines are those?” I asked.
“They look like some janky old TMIs,” Ana-Zhi said. “Fifty-fifty chance of them exploding.”
“That’s comforting,” Chiraine said.
Even working quickly at robot speed, it took a half hour for the Sean bot to finish calibrating the repulsors and the thruster arrays and checking all the components—especially life support, which we’d need even with our exosuits. He also checked, adjusted, and double-checked the comm system, which was critical to the plan. Then he took the Kryrk and affixed a blinking egg-shaped device to it using friction bands.
I moved closer to examine the device. “That’s not a—”
“Skiphammer? Yes, it is. Minus the thermal charge, of course.”
“It looks completely real.”
“That’s the idea, son.”
With just less than eight hours left until the Fountain opened, the Sean bot announced that we were ready for departure.
“How are you feeling, Z?” he said to Ana-Zhi. “You remember the plan?”
“Of course I do,” Ana-Zhi said. “I just don’t think Yates will buy it.”
“He doesn’t have to. You said Agon Qualt is running this mission for the Mayir.”
“Yeah.”
“Good. That means you just have to convince him. So keep your cool, Z, and just stick to what we discussed.”
The Sean bot instructed me and Chiraine to power off our comm units and exosuit beacons. “As far as Qualt should know, Ana-Zhi is the only survivor. JJ, Chiraine, you’re going to need to keep quiet back there the second the comm is open.”
“Yes, sir.”
Chiraine giggled at me. “JJ? Really?”
“I’ll tell you later,” I said.
“Good luck, everyone,” the Sean bot said. “We’re going to need it. Z, you’ve got the con. Make sure you keep her belly down.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
“Wait,” I said to the Sean bot. “Aren’t you coming with us?”
“Of course I am. I’m just traveling on the outside. Now, keep your eyes open and your mouth shut. Okay, son?”
I nodded as the Sean bot disappeared out of the air lock. Ana-Zhi closed the hatch and then settled into the cockpit pilot’s seat.
“Here goes nothing, kiddos.”
With that, she keyed the repulsors and the shuttle began to vibrate and hum as it slid towards the bay doors. Thankfully the doors opened and the shuttle lurched out into space. If I understood him correctly, it appeared that the Sean bot was riding on the shuttle’s lower hull.
The passenger cabin where Chiraine and I sat was ringed with narrow portholes which offered a view of our surroundings. As Ana-Zhi flew us away from Bandala, I gazed out into the inky darkness, expecting to see the Mayir ship with her guns blazing. But all I saw beyond the fortress was unfamiliar constellations of glittering stars.
The shuttle’s maneuvering thrusters rattled the craft as we drew away from Bandala.
“Do you know how far we are from the Fountain?” Chiraine asked in a low voice.
“Over three hundred thousand kilometers, at least,” I said. “But we’re—”
I cut myself off because I spotted a Lamprey-class scout hanging in space, just off the edge of the fortress. It
