“Well, that’s reassuring,” Makali said, unable to hide the sarcasm. She turned to Zhao. “Are you reassured?”
“I’m pondering the weapon we can use against the Reivers,” he said. “Along with wondering how they got to the NEO in the first place, and what they really want.”
Yvonne turned to them. “They came,” she said, with the familiar channeling-Keanu tone, “as unwanted passengers on an arriving spacecraft. Like mice on a sailing ship. We thought we had exterminated them,” she continued, totally given over to her avatar mode now. “But one race deliberately hid a colony, which then reestablished itself.”
Now she shuddered, and seemed to wake up. “What they want is to suck every one of us dry, take all our energy and life to make more of them. Apply that to maybe the entire galaxy. Their goal is to…transform everything into their kind of being or matter.”
Makali grinned at Zhao, who seemed stunned to disbelief. “So, what have you got? A paper clip in your pocket?” She nodded at Pav, who cradled a Slate in his lap. “We could boot that up and dazzle them with graphics or pound them with loud music.” She patted her pocket. “I’ve got a Tik-Talk. Maybe I could throw it at them—”
Yvonne sat up straight. “Use the Tik-Talk,” she said.
Zack heard her, too. “For what?”
“Contact with the habitat!” Rachel said.
“How would that even work?” Makali said.
Yvonne looked happy for the first time since Makali had met her. “Signals have a tough time going through habitats, but these tunnels not only conduct mass, they conduct energy and radiation—”
“Got it,” Makali said, thumbing the power button. She was pleased to note that the battery indicator was, appropriately, half full. Then she offered the Tik-Talk to Zack. “Your call, boss.”
“You go ahead.”
She needed no further encouragement. “Hello, Temple. Hello, Temple, this is Makali Pillay. Anybody home?”
They all waited. Thirty seconds passed. “For God’s sake, keep trying,” Dale said. “It’s standard operating procedure.”
“I’m hardly a standard operator,” she snapped. But she repeated the call.
Then waited. Still nothing.
“Are we sure it’s working?” Rachel said.
“You can hear the carrier wave,” Pav said. He slid forward, assuming a praying posture in front of Makali and the Tik-Talk. “Come on, somebody!”
“While this would be great,” Dale said, “it doesn’t change our situation.” He looked at Yvonne, then at Zack. “We’ve still got to get to the vesicle. The Temple people aren’t going to be able to help—”
“Hello!” A voice spoke from the Tik-Talk. “Who is this? Where are you?”
Harley Drake. Makali handed the Tik-Talk to Zack.
There wasn’t time for a long chat. And from what Makali heard about the situation in the human habitat, only a long chat would be sufficient to catch them up. The infestation was bad news, certainly. Camilla’s strange behavior—also bad.
But the wonderful things being whipped up by Nayar’s team in the Temple? Not only tools, but food, water, clothing, medical equipment?
Weapons?
Still, in spite of what Makali was hearing from Harley on the speaker, Dale’s point was sound: There wasn’t anything the Temple team could do to help them against the Reivers. Not yet, anyway.
She actually moved away. It was too painful to listen. She preferred instead to watch Yvonne and the Architect, both of them in silent communion for the entire conversation between Zack and Harley.
Then there was Dash the Sentry, alone with its alien thoughts. As she looked, something about the Sentry’s appearance troubled Makali.
Makali turned back to the conversation in time to hear Zhao say, “I don’t know how to fight the Reivers face-to-face, but I’ve been trained in asymmetric or cyberwar methods.”
She sat down next to Dale, who had been paying closer attention. “What is he talking about?”
“A weapon to use against the Reivers.”
“Oh, really?”
“If you have a life form that is pure information, the weapon to use is—”
“A lie?” Makali said.
“Well, corrupt information. Or corrupt information that keeps on corrupting.”
“What does that mean in practical terms?”
“Damned if I know,” Dale said. “But I think we’re into biological warfare. Bug on bug, something that will turn their strengths against them.”
She let her head loll back. Among the many drawbacks of living on adrenaline for forty hours straight was the need to sit down and effectively shut down more often and more completely. She felt that now…a bone-deep weariness that made her question every decision, every hope.
Nothing looked good right now. “I was just thinking,” she said to Dale, on the chance that stirring herself for a new conversation would restart her motor. “Why were the Skyphoi in the dead habitat to begin with?”
“What do you mean?”
“Were they there to help Dash, or catch him?”
“I assume it was to help him…they were vectored there by whatever voices they hear.”
“But what if they were trying to catch Dash instead? Or even kill him?”
“Well, okay, but they haven’t said anything—”
“They can’t say shit that we understand! Maybe all those freaky colors have been the Skyphoi saying, ‘The Sentry is a murderer!’”
She suddenly turned to look at Dash again.
There was an item on the Sentry’s left lower arm. That was what she had been recording without actually seeing.
It looked like a piece of fabric.
“You’ve seen how difficult it is to communicate from one habitat to another, or from one race to another! And their Revenant or communicator is dead.”
“I think you’ve gone without food or sleep for too long.”
She nudged Dale. “Okay, check out the Sentry’s arm. Any idea what that is?”
Dale stiffened. “It’s from Valya’s bag,” he said.
“Ask yourself what he’s doing with it.”
“I don’t have to,” he said. “The Skyphoi didn’t kill Valya—fucking Dash did!”
Dale was already in motion. Makali put her hand on his arm. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Good question.” That was Zack Stewart from across the railcar. He had handed the Tik-Talk off to Zhao and had been watching Makali and Dale.
Makali saw no way to tell Zack of their suspicions without alerting Dash, who remained busy and apparently oblivious four meters away.
Not secretly, of course. But who needed secrets? “We were just talking some Earth history.”
Zack knew that wasn’t true, that they were hiding something. “Okay…”
“About Americans’ involvement in various conflicts going back a century…and how we frequently discovered we had been slow to recognize the threat of fascism.”
“Yeah,” Zack said. Rachel and Pav were looking at each other. Yvonne was staring straight at Makali.
“Like Hitler,” Dale said. “Americans were slow to realize what a danger Hitler was—” And here Dale glanced toward Dash.
Moving with a speed Makali found surprising and alarming, the Sentry pushed itself away from the wall, pulled itself toward the open side of the railcar, and jumped out.
Rachel screamed. The dog barked and jumped out, too.
“What’s going on?” Yvonne said. She pointed to the Architect, who was otherwise impassive. “He’s very confused.”
“Dash is working for the other side,” Dale said. “It killed Valya and the Skyphoi Revenant—”
The railcar rattled to a violent stop, throwing everyone forward.
“Now what?” Dale said. “Another blackout?”
“He stopped us,” Yvonne said.
“Well, make him start us again,” Zhao said. “We can’t waste more time.”
“What about Cowboy?” Rachel said.
“We’re not stopping for a dog,” Zack said. “But we’re stopped, right?” Yvonne nodded.