Jakus strained to focus into the distance. What the hell is that over there? he asked his co-riggers, pointing down through the gauzy layers of the Flux. There was something in those layers that looked like a ship. But it didn’t look like Impris.
Another ship? said Cranshaw. It looks like another ship!
Don’t it just, Jakus breathed. What’s another ship doing down there? That was not a layer of the Flux where any other ship should be. How would it even get there? Jakus called on the bridge com, What are you guys gettin’ on the deep-layer, thirty down and twenty t’ port? Do you see what we see?
As he waited for an answer, Jakus tried to adjust the image. Now the ship was gone, like a puff of vapor. But there was no question he’d seen it. Right in the fold haunted by Impris. And so had Cranshaw and the others.
This is really strange, said Nockey, from the bridge instrumentation crew. We’ve lost it now, but there was definitely another ship there for a few seconds. Not in our layer. Down there with the snark. Someone call Captain Hyutu.
Yah, said Jakus. I wonder if someone else got lost like Snarkie. Maybe we’ve got two of them now. He chuckled at the thought. Even as one who thought this was a pretty wimpy way to snatch targets, it was amusing to think of another lure just dropping into their laps.
We’re trying to refine the signal, said Nockey. Maybe we can get some kind of an ident on the thing. The captain will love it.
Yah, said Jakus, settling back into watchful mode. He checked the time. He’d be going off shift soon. If the normal pattern of sightings held true, that was all the excitement they could expect for a while.
By all accounts, nothing new had happened in the meantime, but when Jakus stepped into Captain Benadir Hyutu’s office before his next shift, Hyutu was scowling. That in itself didn’t mean much, since Hyutu had generally the disposition of a Kargan rattler; but it didn’t take long to deduce that the captain was even more displeased with life than usual.
“What’s wrong, Ben?” Jakus asked, dropping into a seat across from the captain. Having known Hyutu since the old days on the L.A., he allowed himself more familiarity than most of the crew.
Hyutu’s right eyebrow twitched fiercely. The old man was a stiff prig, anyway—and under strain, his augments tended to go a little flaky. Jakus was sure it was some kind of a malf, but Hyutu refused to have them looked at. “You see the report on that sighting?” Hyutu said sharply.
Jakus shrugged. “I’ve been off duty. Why, is there something new?”
Hyutu’s face tightened with disdain, which was a good trick with that eyebrow still going. He muttered something under his breath that Jakus couldn’t quite hear, then grunted, “Bark, that’s why you’re never going to get ahead in this organization. An ambitious man is never ‘off duty.’ ”
Jakus shrugged at the rebuke. He hated it when Hyutu got on his high horse. He’d been like that even back on the L.A., before any of them were pirates. But it had gotten worse since Hyutu’d become an augmented captain in the KM/C navy. Still, the man was a powerhouse, and Jakus had good reason to stay loyal to him. “Okay, okay—so what did they find out?”
“You tell me. They got some readings on that ship you saw.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s Kyber, Hyutu said impatiently.
Jakus stared at him, stunned. “Kyber?”
“Not just Kyber.” Hyutu turned away for a minute, rubbing his eyebrow. He swiveled back. “It looks like it’s one of Ivan’s.”
Jakus whistled.
“I presume that means something to you? You’ve paid that much attention, anyway?”
“Of course it means something,” Jakus said defensively. He didn’t actually know much about Ivan, but he knew KM/C and Ivan together spelled bad blood. Not that anyone ever briefed him on this stuff. “I work to find out these things,” he added. “We and Ivan don’t like each other. At all.”
Hyutu almost smiled for the first time. “Don’t like each other. That’s one way to put it. How about, what other Kyber boss’d be—if I may be vulgar for a moment—asshole enough to mess with Impris when it’s not his turn.” Hyutu paused, and for a moment actually broke into a grin. “And I can’t think of anything that would make Carlotta smile more than for Ivan to get caught out here with his genitalia where they don’t belong.” He chuckled, and his other eyebrow started twitching.
Jakus frowned. “What d’you think they’re up to? Some kind of sabotage? Maybe they got caught by accident.”
“Well, what do you think? Why else would they be sneaking around out there? Of course, they’re probably regretting it now. They’ll never get out, any more than Impris did. But if they do…”
Jakus waited.
For a moment, Hyutu looked like a cruise ship captain getting ready to make nice with the passengers. “If he does come out again?” Hyutu’s phony smile broadened. “I’ll put a flux-torpedo up his shiny ass.”
Jakus grinned.
Hyutu’s sharp black eyes focused inward in contemplation. “Because I think it’s time,” he said, “that we made an example of people who interfere with the rightful order of things in the Kyber Republic. Wouldn’t you agree, Rigger?” He nodded decisively, not waiting for a reply. “Of course you agree. Now, let’s go to work, shall we?”
Jakus got up and followed Hyutu out of the office.
As they approached the rigger-stations, Jakus heard a shout from the instrumentation section. “We’re getting some activity out there! I don’t know what’s happening, but it’s pretty damn strange. Skipper, I think there may be something coming out of the underlayer!”
“Move it, people!” Hyutu snapped, clapping his hands. “Sound battle stations! This could be the fun we’ve been waiting for.”
The fire roared around Phoenix, a diamond inferno. They were falling, burrowing through the inferno, a storm of tangled thoughts enveloping them as intensely as the fire itself. For a moment, an eternity, it was impossible to tell whose thoughts were whose, and where any of them were going. We’re alive alive are we third ring second ring alive first alive burning can’t hold on…
Am I palagren?… legroeder…?
It was beginning to sort out. Legroeder saw images flickering explosively around him, little windows opening through the flaw, the Flux, maybe reality itself—not memories this time, but something else. The glimpses came so fast he could not absorb them instantly, but only a heartbeat or two after—
—an unfamiliar nebula, roiling with fire and starlife—