The explanations started all over again with a new level of tension, helped slightly by the fact that Darya Lang was indisputably a woman. She had given Hans Rebka a single look of anger and disdain, then ignored him. The Treel sisters liked that. After presenting a united front for a while they had now changed to what Rebka suspected was their natural condition. They were beginning to squabble among themselves, Lissie and Katerina kicking back against Maddy’s age and presumption of seniority.
They finally agreed to listen to Darya’s story, but patience and polite behavior didn’t last very long. Darya began well, disposing of one source of J’merlia’s perplexity in two sentences. “Labyrinth is new, but it contains old things that had been locked inside other artifacts for ages and then were brought here. Just as you were brought here.”
“So I was right,” Maddy said.
“I’m not an old thing,” E.C. Tally objected. “I’m almost new.”
“And I don’t give a damn whether Labyrinth is full of something old,” Katerina interrupted. “Or something new, or even something borrowed and something blue.”
“Orange,” said E.C. Tally. “The Builders prefer orange.”
Katerina glared at him. “Are you sure you’re not a man? As I was trying to point out, we were brought here, and that’s enough for me. Who cares if Labyrinth is crammed to the rafters with Tenthredans, or Hymenopts, or Lo’tfians, or purple-spotted blue-bummed green-balled Fambezuxian male sexist hooter-honkers. And you” — she had seen Tally ready with a puzzled look and a question — “can shut up and learn about those later, from somebody else. I want out, and I want out now.”
Maddy ignored her sister’s outburst. “But why were we brought here?” she asked thoughtfully. “And what happens next?”
Darya clenched her teeth. So much for the rest of them sitting and listening to any description of Labyrinth. They had no interest at all in hearing what she had to say. “I have no idea why you were brought here. Or what will happen next.” She stood up and firmly closed her suit’s helmet. “But I’m not going to sit here and listen to you argue with each other. If you want out, then go. I told Kallik that I would return and reveal to her exactly what I found, and I am going to do just that. I have promises to keep.”
It made a fine exit line. Darya gave Hans Rebka one last cold look, that said, I won’t deal with you now, you worm, but just you wait; then she left.
She did not like what she found beyond the airlock. She was in the same chamber, but there had been major changes. The space had somehow increased in size. Its walls had become translucent, and she could see the faint outline of other rooms beyond. Worse than that, the way back, which had been open and easy, was blocked. At the entrance to the tunnel stood the familiar but unwelcome sight of another transportation vortex.
It was still swelling and building. Darya waited. This time she knew what to expect. The pattern was developing in the same way as before: darkness, growing on itself and with a center of swirling, absolute black. Then a ghost image, flickering for the briefest moment across the dark bloated heart.
It took longer this time, because the final size of the vortex was so big that it filled almost the whole expanded chamber. Darya retreated to the illusory shelter of the Misanthrope at the far end. She noted that in spite of Lissie’s ultimatum the ship had not changed its position. She thought she could see it shaking a little. The fighting among the sisters inside was something better imagined than experienced.
The spectral image became stronger, flashing twice into near-visibility. It was a ship, and a big one, with a slightly peculiar profile. She saw why when it finally popped into full existence and she could examine it for more than a split-second at a time. The new vessel had begun life as a sleek ship with an advanced Fourth Alliance design, but somehow a large part of the aft section had been sheared away. Before she could evaluate the extent of that damage, a hatch on the side was swinging inward. Three human figures jetted out, followed a few moments later by a gigantic fourth shape.
A familiar gigantic shape. A Cecropian. Darya’s eyes were ready to pop out through her visor. She was beyond surprise when the leading human came zipping over to her.
“What, may I ask, are you doing here?” The nasal, arrogant voice had not changed a bit. “Access to this artifact is supposed to be tightly controlled.”
“She must have been dumped here, like we were,” another voice said, just as familiar. “Hey, Professor, how’s it goin’?”
Darya shook her head hopelessly and gestured to the Misanthrope, still motionless beside her. “Let’s go in there and talk. It can’t get any messier inside, and I don’t want to be out here when the next shipment arrives.”
Darya was wrong. It got much messier within the Misanthrope before five minutes had passed, because in less than that interval the next shipment did arrive. Kallik, finding the road between the chambers open, appeared with two of the Tenthredans.
The Treel’s exploration ship had been designed for a crew of three, with emergency space for a couple of extra passengers. Packed inside it at the moment were the three Treel sisters, Hans Rebka, E.C. Tally, J’merlia, Louis Nenda, Glenna Omar, Quintus Bloom, Atvar H’sial, Kallik, and the two still-anonymous Tenthredans. Plus, of course, Darya herself.
It would have made more sense to reconvene on the Gravitas, but the Treel sisters refused to board any vessel that lacked superluminal capability. As Katerina pointed out, anyone who left Labyrinth on a subluminal ship faced a long crawl home. The presence on the Gravitas of a live, adult Zardalu was of less consequence. Maddy and her sisters just didn’t believe Louis Nenda, and his comment that passage through a Builder vortex had changed the Zardalu’s attitude toward space travel and subdued it considerably was taken as embroidery on an implausible fabrication.
Not everyone was talking at once. It merely felt that way. The only happy being of any species seemed to be Quintus Bloom. He was grinning, and he had started to lecture everyone who would listen as soon as his suit was open.
“Exactly as I expected.” The prominent nose was raised high in satisfaction. “Events are occurring precisely as my theory predicted.”
That wasn’t the way Darya remembered things. She looked at Bloom, and then carefully scanned everyone else crowded into the cabin. The expressions on the faces of the nonhumans and of E.C. Tally were largely unreadable, but the rest were a study in contrasts. Maddy and Katerina Treel were edgy and impatient, eager to leave Labyrinth as soon as possible. It was only a matter of time before they threw everyone off their ship and fled. Maybe they were the smart ones. Their blond sister, Lissie, had been caught instantly by the Bloom charisma. Her deep suspicion of men had been charmed away, and she was standing right in front of him and hanging open-mouthed on to his every word.
Next to Lissie and Bloom, Hans Rebka stood in his usual crisis mode, monitoring everything and everyone, self-contained and serious. He noticed Darya staring at him and his expression turned to one of acute discomfort.
He ignored everybody else and came across to stand by her side. “Darya, we have to talk.”
“Indeed?” She stared at him coldly. “I don’t know that I have anything to say to you. And it’s the worst possible time for talking.”
“It may be the worst time, but it could be the only chance we’ll ever have. No matter what happens to us, I want to set something straight.”