Melissa and Andrew nodded their pleasure at his invitation, then followed Captain von Breunig from the bridge down through the narrow, dark corridor to his quarters. Though the cabin was small, von Breunig had filled it with a galaxy of nautical charts and artifacts. Despite the abundance of sealife samples from across the InnerSphere, Andrew and Melissa noticed only one thing about the cabin.
Hanging high above them, burning like an opal disk, the clouded face of Fomalhaut V shone through the cabin's transparent ceiling. Surrounding it, stars burned diamond-white and sapphire-blue. Without atmosphere to mute and warp their light, they neither winked nor wavered. Rather, the suns stared down harshly at the people watching from the Silver Eagle.
The Captain spoke softly. "It often affects me that way."
A smile spread across Andrew's face. "Those stars are like watchful eyes . . . Almost as though the universe were alive." He reached up a hand toward the ceiling as though to grab a star and hold it in his hand.
Melissa shivered. "It looks so cold and unforgiving."
Von Breunig nodded. "Space is an anvil upon which the meek are broken. The mariners on old Earth both feared and loved the sea. I feel the same way about space."
A second warning tone sounded through the ship. In compliance, the Captain waved his guests to chairs and then buckled himself into one, too. "I hope, Leftenant, that your Prince Davion and his New Avalon Institute of Science will find a way to manufacture gravity. Going weightless when we shut down our acceleration drive is bothersome."
The Captain punched several buttons on his desk and a view-screen raised itself from a compartment hidden in the deck. It was clear that the image flickering to life on the screen came from a camera mounted in the bridge. The trio watched as the pilot expertly docked the Silver Eaglewith the Bifrost.The computers spun and contracted the various interlocking rings on the docking collars, then the pilot extended the K-F drive boom and locked it into position on the Bifrost.
Her voice echoed from a small speaker on the Captain's desk. "Request permission to jump, sir."
"Granted."
Melissa gripped the arms of her seat. A final warning tone— this one more urgent and insistent—rang one minute before jump. Melissa felt the perspiration trickling down her neck and between her breasts. She forced herself to breathe normally and to keep from screwing her eyes shut. No, you won't do that this time.
They jumped.
The stars above them blurred, then flared and filled Melissa's eyes with a flash of light. Is the universe screaming in pain? Can it feel us pierce its flesh and rend its soul?The fabric of the ship crushed in on her in one instant, then everything seemed to draw away and to stretch out like the distorted reflection in a carnival mirror.
Just as suddenly, everything snapped back into focus with a nearly physical impact. Melissa shook her head to clear away the dizziness, and fought back against the nausea. More sweat wrapped her in a cold, clammy blanket. She closed her eyes and immediately tasted bile in her throat. Still battling the nausea, she leaned back and looked up.
A planetoid larger than Tharkad City filled the overhead view-screen. Blue lights blinked on high towers. She picked out an obviously man-made dome among the pockmarked cliffsides and canyons on the surface of the tan-colored rock. Then, as the rock rotated, she spotted the lighted square dug into the planetoid's stony skin.
Something caught in her throat. She barely heard the urgency in the pilot's voice, or the worry in Captain von Breunig's hastily snapped orders. Melissa knew, instinctively, that something was very, very wrong.
43
Luthien
Pesht Military District, Draconis Combine
23 May 3027
Subhash Indrahar bowed deeply to Takashi Kurita. The black kimono swathing his barrel chest and broad shoulders seemed somber for a man whom others had named "the Smiling One" for his gregariousness. The somberness was appropriate, however, to the great seriousness of Indrahar's mission.
Takashi Kurita, Coordinator of the Draconis Combine, returned the bow of the Director of the Draconis Combine's Internal Security Forces. With an elegant gesture, he indicated that Indrahar should seat himself on the pillow to the Coordinator's right—a place of honor. As the ISF Director crossed to that pillow, Kurita gathered up the sheets of rice paper that he had filled with calligraphy and set them aside.
Indrahar knelt on the pillow. "Dono arigato,Kurita Takashi-sama." Indrahar allowed a smile to tighten his lips for an instant, then the gravity of his mission smashed it flat. "I have information that might best be described in terms of the Liao curse: 'May you live in interesting times.' "
Kurita nodded slowly. "Hai? "
Indrahar straightened his kimono, then looked up at the Coordinator. "We may have in our grasp the means to force incredible concessions from the Lyran Commonwealth. I have reason to believe that Melissa Steiner, the Archon-Designate, is currently in the Draconis Combine."
Kurita's head snapped up and Indrahar felt the extent of the Coordinator's shock. "How do you know this?"
Indrahar composed his face. "The initial information came from a chance comment made by Precentor Myndo Waterly to one of my people on Dieron, but we have worked to confirm the rumor."
The Coordinator nodded slowly. "Where?"
Indrahar allowed himself the hint of a smile. "My sources suggest that she is being held in the system known as Styx."
Kurita's eyes narrowed. "The system that once belonged to Viscount Robert Monahan?"
Before replying, Indrahar hesitated slightly to show the Coordinator that he had not been completely correct in his recollection. "Monahan owned the Styx Mining Corporation, but he sold it to Wayland Smith late in 3025. As you will recall, Smith managed to obtain a large number of investors for his new Styx Mining Corporation by letting them believe that their spies had cracked the security on his computers. The investors saw what they believed were genuine geological reports indicating that the Styx system was not played out, despite the four hundred years of mining done there."
Kurita frowned. He dipped his brush into the pot of black ink on the low table before him and quickly slashed a stroke onto a sheet of rice paper. His irritation flashed in his blue eyes, then died. "You still have not caught this Wayland Smith?"
Indrahar shook his head. "No, though Monahan and his board of directors were executed, as per your orders. We believe that Smith is somewhere in the Lyran Commonwealth now. Ever since he absconded with the 25,000,000 C-bills, malcontents have been using the Styx system as a safe heaven."
Kurita nodded. "Better they hide themselves in safety than force us to expend energy hunting them down."
The Smiling One chewed his lower lip thoughtfully. "We have learned that the current contingent has made a contract with Frederick Steiner, a contract negotiated by Gray Noton on Solaris. According to its terms, they have hijacked a Monopole DropShip, the Silver Eagle.The Silver Eaglejumped from Fomalhaut aboard the JumpShip Bifrost.Styx is within range."
Kurita's eyes became azure slivers as he listened to this news. "Why do you believe Melissa Steiner is on board?"