“I thought this was the right docking port,” he said.
“Aiben!”
“Achanei?”
She laughed, stepped around Neikkia, and raced forward to throw her arms around him. Neikkia held back and watched cautiously. Ballis’s finger remained taut on the trigger of his gun. He was looking at the man from his last fuzzy memory. Ballis still had no idea who he was.
“It’s alright.” Achanei gave Ballis a crooked half-smile. “I’m pretty sure he’s with you.”
CHAPTER 30
Jiab threw a blanket from his pack over himself and crouched down underneath it on a rooftop. Nanomechs saturated the fabric’s lining and concealed him from the pursuing patrolmech with an electromagnetic cloak of invisibility. Once the robotic enforcer had passed him unaware, Jiab unpacked a laser-cutter and switched on its blazing beam. He held it close to contain as much of the laser’s glow as possible beneath the heat and light smothering shield. Some energy still escaped his cloaked shadow and punched visible holes in the camouflage. An eerie green halo splashed out onto the surrounding fog. Time was running out and the trick was not to catch the blanket or a body part in the searing ray while he stepped up his pace.
He had a rapidly diminishing window of opportunity before the security system in the docking bay below him kicked back in. Neikkia had suspended it with their appropriated ident-disc just less than an hour before finding their way to Achanei’s cell. The system would sense the inactivity in the bay anytime now and reinitialize its security field.
Fear welled up inside him, the telltale Oobellian response of increased salivation causing him to swallow frequently. Neikkia Noonak and Achanei were already several minutes behind schedule and the patrolmech could swing back his way at any moment and sense the energy leaking from underneath his cover. He ignored the temptation to abandon his task and go look for his friends. It took nothing less than a deafening crash and a tremor across the rooftop to make him to look up.
***
Lev-9 pulled his arms into his sides and straightened his body into a rigid, descending javelin. Several hovering vehicles had to swerve out of his path along the line of descent. They careened into other lanes of floating traffic and caused a chain reaction of lane jumps and eventual collisions. He ignored the turmoil he was causing. He had no control over it anyway.
He popped a rear-facing sensor out of his rotating cranial band, swiveled it to the front, and pointed it straight down. It allowed him to see where he was falling without having to bend his head forward and disrupt the aerodynamics of his fall. He switched the electronic eye’s mode to infrared as his alloy body plunged into the dark cloudbank of smoggy emissions that climbed up the docking tower.
Lev-9 scanned what lie beneath. A steel knot protruded from the side of a docking tower in his path. A quick calculation of the distance told him that he would intersect with it in less than five seconds. That was more than enough time to prepare his hydraulic legs to absorb the shock that the impact would deal them. Mechanical gears and joints locked and the strong cords that set them in motion were pulled to their tensile limits.
The soles of his metallic feet smashed into the roof of the extruding structure. He readied himself to pierce it like an arrow through a piece of paper, but the roof held firm, bearing the force of his collision. He did a quick check of his systems. His hydraulics, their strong cords, and the electrical components that drove them were still intact. Data told him that the shock had compromised their functionality somewhat, but it was an insignificant amount under normal operating circumstances. He picked a foot up from the surface of the roof and saw the indentation it had left there.
A figure bathed in an emerald haze, standing twenty-five point six feet to his right, drew the attention of his optical sensor. It was looking straight at him. It held a laser-cutter, still spitting a focused slicing beam from the tip of its emitter. The blazing blade’s green light lit up the figure’s face. Two gleaming circles reflected off the safety goggles that covered his eyes. Lev-9 zoomed in his vision, and despite the eye covering, positively identified the Oobellian.
He held his arms out, one palm up, and one palm down, in the classic Oobellian gesture of peaceful intent. He slowly approached the stout, furry being. The Oobellian dialed down the blade of his cutter, but hefted up the tool and leveled it at him. This came as no surprise. Lev-9 had never known this particular specimen of his species to be unprepared in an unknown situation. When he was but four feet in front of the goggled sentient, six inches farther than the cutter beam could emit, he stopped.
“Can I help you with something, friend?” the Oobellian probed. He was up on the balls of his feet, shifting his weight from foot to foot, the laser-cutter held steady.
“That depends on your ability to do so. Are you in the right circumstances to help an old friend?”
“An old friend? What are you talking about? And who’s asking anyway?” The hair covering the Oobellian’s hand stood on end as he tightened his grip on the blade extender.
“I’m an old business associate, Jiab...”
“I have quite a few of them,” the Oobellian interrupted him, “and I don’t remember a mechanoid such as you being counted among them.”
“You would remember me as Lev-8.” He shifted his voice into a softer tone. He recalled that Oobellians were very emotional beings and tended to responded in kind.
“What? You’re telling me that you’re Lev?” The cutter dipped for a split second, but Jiab grunted it right back up. “How can I be sure it’s you? No offense, but you don’t look like you anymore. I should probably just slice you up right here so I can get back to what I was doing. I don’t have a lot of time right now.”
“We spent two years working together with another associate from your home planet, Neikkia Noonak. We ran a small charter business on a small asteroid for tourists who wanted to see the ice rings of Obol Konot in the Mion Kor system.”
“Common knowledge to anyone with a pocketful of guilders,” Jiab said.
“What isn’t common knowledge is the fact that we were actually running a smuggling operation.”
Jiab whistled around white, serrated teeth, which poked out of his mouth in the beginnings of an Oobellian grin. “Is that so? Smuggling what?”
“Gimgim mold.”
“Worthless stuff.”
“Except that when refined, gimgim contains a certain controlled substance illegal in Guild space and found only in the Mion Kor system. We were providing that substance to an underground network that made sure it was used for certain medicinal purposes.”
“And we set up this smuggling operation ourselves, did we?”
Lev-9 would have laughed if he were human. Jiab wasn’t going to admit he knew him until he gave the correct answer to the one question that just he, Jiab, and Neikkia Noonak would know.
“We just managed the operation. It was actually your grandmother, Loolabee, who set everything up. She was a very venerable Oobellian.”
Jiab let the cutter drop. A loud sigh escaped from between a sharp, wide grin. The fur on his face twitched as an explosive belly laugh followed. “My grandmother was a first class felon right up until her well-deserved, natural death. You sure do look different, Lev.”
“I’m now Lev-9. Lev-8 was shut down a little over five years ago.”
“No wonder I didn’t recognize you. Sorry to hear it.”
“No need, my ninth body is much more durable than my eighth was.”
“Whatever you say,” Jiab said. “I just never know whether to congratulate or give condolences to a mechanoid in this situation. I never really understood all of that body changing stuff anyway.”
“Each of us has our surprises,” Lev-9 said.
“And speaking of surprises, what are you doing here on Mora Bentia? Quite a coincidence, isn’t it?”
“The chance does seem to be astronomical, unless there is a common reason for us to be here at the same place and time.??
?
“What reason could that be?” Jiab asked.
Lev-9 recounted the story of the expedition he had joined, and Jiab reciprocated with his own tale of adventure. They soon found a common thread and it all began to unravel as they pulled on it.
“Achanei and this cybermancer, Aiben.” Jiab twisted a tuft of fur on his cheek between thumb and forefinger. “It still seems a mighty big coincidence that two former business associates such as us would know the very two people needing rescue, who also happen to know each other.”
Lev-9 didn’t give an answer and Jiab didn’t wait for one. Instead, he dug into his pack and pulled out a second laser-cutter. He threw it to Lev-9 who caught it and ignited the blade.
“Achanei and Neikkia still haven’t shown up. I’m going to need your help if they got caught again. With both of us working, we’ll be able to cut our way through the docking bay roof before it’s too late.”
“And then you’ll help me retrieve Aiben and Ballis?”
“Yes, of course. That’s what old friends are for, aren’t they?” Jiab laughed again as he drilled back into the roof with his beam. “Just like old times!”
The two comrades were soon lowering themselves with Jiab’s hoverpack through the hole they had made. Lev-9 coaxed the bay’s computer to open its doors while Jiab gained entry to House Feillion’s impounded launch. By the time Lev-9 boarded, Jiab had kicked up the hoverjets to full hum. Several minutes later, the small craft rocketed out into Abri Mor’s smoggy sky.
CHAPTER 31
Aiben drank deeply from the feeling of her pressed against him, her arms wrapped around his neck. Her warm breath fluttered against his cheek and his heart stuttered a beat. The smell of her hair was familiar, yet foreign with the taint of mingled odors, smoke and oxidized steel. His cheek tingled against hers with the memory of her touch. He could close his eyes in pitch-dark and still know who it was: Achanei.
He thrust his thoughts through the hyperportal’s coded barrier into a cyberlink, but she wasn’t connected to the hypernet. Nairom was there, but his thoughts hovered just outside of Aiben’s grasp. They hadn’t communicated with one another through the cyberlink yet. It wasn’t so unusual for the two friends.
While growing up on Besti, they had gradually stopped using the cyberlink to talk to each other, except during training, and had fallen into the habit of speaking vocally instead. It came from having to work day by day outside the Citadel for Ballis in the old garage. It had never felt awkward before, though. Now it felt as if there were secrets between them that neither wanted to risk exposing through their thoughts. He guessed there was much on Nairom’s mind he wasn’t ready to discover, or that Nairom would be ready to divulge yet. Right now, though, Aiben needed to find Achanei’s thoughts to confirm what he had been feeling. Her absence on the hypernet gave him the idea to call out to her with shalal hiliz.
Achanei?
Her mind resonated in the Haman mind-link, but she wasn’t conscious of it, and her thoughts stood apart from the still weak minds of the ilud’hi. She had been his echo after all! What did it mean? Achanei was not Haman. Her lips brushed his cheek.
“I was sure I was never going to see you again,” Aiben choked out. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
“Me too. I really missed you, Aiben.” After several more seconds of embrace, she pulled away from him. “Is that Nairom?”
Achanei’s bright jade eyes pointed in the direction, where just outside the edge of the irised portal, a man stood watching them. Aiben followed her gaze. Nairom was tall and well built. He had shorn his black hair to almost nothing but dark shadow on his smooth round skull. His eyes were deep-set, steel-gray, cradled by high cheekbones. They radiated something almost gripping, yet still sad. A hard-set jaw and a cleft in his chin completed his features. Physically, Nairom was only a year older than Aiben, but his face had aged several years beyond that. Aiben had shown Achanei holos of Nairom when he had looked much younger and happier.
“Yes, this is Nairom.” Aiben locked fingers with Achanei. They turned to face him together. “This is Achanei. She’s a cybermancer from the Citadel. She arrived on Besti just after you left.”
Nairom nodded. “Oand-ib told me about you. He said you and Aiben have become quite good friends.”
Achanei nodded back, smiling uneasily. Aiben could feel the tension in the air like an electrostatic shock building up. The last thing he wanted was for it to strike her if she got caught between them.
Neikkia clucked her tongue, the Oobellian equivalent of a human clearing her throat. Achanei took the opportunity and introduced her companion to the two cybermancers.
“This is one of my father’s people and a good friend, Neikkia Noonak. She was one of my favorite instructors back in the court on Feillia Prime.”
Aiben clasped Neikkia’s arm in friendship. Achanei had shown him once how they did this on her planet. “From the stories I’ve heard, I’d have to say I’m really honored.”
Neikkia purred through serrated teeth and grabbed Aiben’s arm in turn, careful to keep her claws retracted. “The feeling is mutual.”
“And it looks like you’ve already met Ballis. I thought you were a goner when Gormy kicked you over the side of that bus.” Aiben clapped the man on the shoulder and smiled at him, but Ballis seemed confused. “What’s wrong?” Aiben asked.
“I think he must have gotten hit pretty hard,” Achanei answered before Ballis could. “He can’t remember anything at all. Couldn’t tell us how or why he’s here.”
Aiben looked from Ballis to Achanei and back again. “What do you mean?”
“Some kind of amnesia, I guess. I’m starting to remember a few things, though. Seeing you, hearing you talk, that seems to help. Unfortunately, I can’t remember anything before a couple of days ago. What I can remember is just random images and I can’t connect them together in any coherent way. I’m standing here watching you three look at each other and wondering how I fit into all of this?”
“Look, reunions aside, we’d better get moving,” Nairom said. “We can catch him up later.”
As fate would have it, at that instant, two patrolmechs suddenly ascended into view over the docking platform behind them. Reunited friends scrambled to find cover in the corridor, but balls of fire summarily banished the hovering mechs. The sleek, blood-red hull of a House Feillion launch rose up from beneath to take their place, energy cannons still glowing from the discharge. The craft spun around on its hoverjets, putting its aft hull towards the docking port and dropped its boarding ramp like the tail of a great beast.
“This is our ride,” Neikkia laughed with a shot-gunned purr. “Everybody get on!”
There wasn’t much else they could do but follow the tall Oobellian aboard.
“How did you find us?” Neikkia asked Jiab as she ran to the cockpit.
She pulled herself into the pilot’s slot as Jiab slid over to the co-pilot’s. Everyone else crowded into the flight couches lining the walls of the craft, except Achanei, who followed Neikkia into the cockpit. Aiben was surprised to find Lev-9 already sitting there waiting for them. After strapping himself in, he began to learn what had happened.
“It wasn’t me who found you,” Jiab confessed. “When you and Achanei didn’t show, I had no way of knowing where you were, but Lev-8 there,” Jiab thrust a thumb at the mechanoid, “um, I mean Lev-9, knew where to find Achanei’s friend, so we tried him first.”
“Lev-9?” Neikkia looked back at the mechanoid wide-eyed. “Is that really you? You look great! Where’d you come from?”
Jiab clucked his tongue. “Lev found Achanei’s friend by using some cybernetic link they have.”
“Don’t interrupt me!” Neikkia pelted Jiab in the shoulder with a balled up fist.
He swiped her hand aside and tried to reciprocate, but she moved out of his way. “It was just pure luck, I guess, that she was already here to be picked up with him. Not so sure about you, though.”
&
nbsp; “Friends, you haven’t changed a bit!” Achanei intervened. “But we don’t have the time for your bickering right now. We need to get out of here before we attract any more attention. We can all get caught up later, and you two can continue your argument once we’re clear of danger.”
Jiab and Neikkia gave each other one last look of mock anger, and then set to the task of getting their small crew to safety. Achanei came back into the crew cabin, grinning despite their situation, and took the seat next to Aiben. She took hold of his hand. It was warm and felt good. Aiben smiled back at her and then looked at Nairom sitting across from them.
“You were right. You did know where to find Ballis, but you didn’t say anything about Achanei being with him.”
“I didn’t know,” Nairom said.
“But you have access to the Protectorate security net, don’t you? She wasn’t listed on their prisoner roster?”
Nairom’s gaze fell on Achanei for just an instant before snapping back to Aiben. “How could I have known to look for her? I’ve learned a lot of stuff about using nanomechs since I left the Citadel, but they haven’t made me clairvoyant yet.” The sarcasm was unmistakable.
“Sorry, I just needed to be sure, that’s all.”
“You know I was always the best one at breaking into secure nets at the Citadel and I was just a simple halath back then.” Aiben heard the tinge of bitterness in his voice. “It was a simple matter to shut off security all over these cell blocks. I could have done the same earlier for Achanei, if I had known she was here. Let’s just be glad my initiative worked out for everyone today.”
“It’s okay, Aiben.” Achanei squeezed his hand. “Thank you, Nairom.”
“And because of that bit heroism, we’re just supposed to trust you?” Ballis opined from next to Nairom.
“I thought you were having trouble remembering things,” Nairom said, eyeing Ballis. “Can you trust her,” he pointed at Achanei, “or him,” he pointed at Lev-9, “any more than you can trust me? Besides, you know me, Ballis.”
Ballis looked at Achanei who nodded. “I don’t know who to trust at this point to tell you the truth, but this young lady knows an awful lot about me, so that counts for something.”