Meanwhile, the outside pickups revealed that the Thek which had been positioned near cruiser and transport were now grouped at the far end of the landing grid. Sassinak studied the screen for a few moments, and turned away, baffled. What were they doing?
She ate breakfast and changed into a dress uniform without expressing any such confusion to the crew, though their bafflement was apparent to her. Halfway through a glass of porssfruit juice, something tickled her memory about Thek.
She’d seen something like this… it came back in a rush. The dead world, the time she had gone down with a landing party, and the Thek had come. First a few had clustered like that, and then others had come and clumped into some kind of structure. She’d forgotten about it for years, because of that mess with Achael, but… “cathedral” was what someone had termed it, the special conference mode of the Thek. To which she was bidden.
Despite herself, Sassinak shivered, remembering that folk involved in a Thek conference often found themselves extremely obedient servants of its determinations. She promptly initiated a Discipline procedure so that she would remember all that transpired during that unique experience. Then grinned to herself. This could make a riveting recital the next time she needed something to enliven a dull evening at the Sector HQ Officers’ Club.
While she and most of the other “invited” guests went willingly through the one opening left by Theks fitting themselves into the immense structure. Captain Cruss did not. His boots dug grooves in the ground to show his unwillingness but inexorably he was brought into the cathedral and the last Thek clunked into place. Oddly enough, a curious ambient light provided illumination. Sassinak caught Aygar’s contemptuous look and turned away, only then noticing the collection of porous shards, a dull dark charcoal grey rather than the usual Thek obsidian, but patently a nearly disassembled Thek.
“Your core evidently bore strange fruit,” she said to Kai, keeping her voice low. “And if that is indeed a very ancient Thek, we ephemerals will have to revise some favorite theories… and some good jokes.”
“Commander,” Cruss cried, his heavy voice reverberating so loudly the others winced, “I demand an explanation of the outrageous treatment to which I have been subjected.”
“Don’t be stupid, Cruss,” Sassinak said, pivoting to him. “You know perfectly well the Thek are a law unto themselves. And you are now subject to that law, and about to sample its justice.”
“We have verified.” The words, intoned in a non-directional voice, opened the conference. “Ireta is for Thek as it has been for hundreds of millions of years. It will remain Thek. For these reasons…”
With no apparent passage of time, Sassinak found herself leaning against Aygar. She needed to: she felt every second of her age in the steamy Iretan midday with its blazing sun beating down on them. Aygar clung to her for a moment more, obviously experiencing a similar disorientation. In the touch of his strong hands, she sensed that his earlier contempt for her had lessened. When he came out of his current shock, she expected he’d be a much more pleasant fellow.
Someone groaned. Sassinak blinked her eyes clear and saw Varian holding Kai upright. Cruss crouched on the ground in such an attitude of dejection that she could almost pity him. Almost, not quite.
In the meantime, she had had her orders. She had to get her marines, Weft and human, off that transport before Cruss woke up and lifted it off-world. Innocent or not, anyone on board at lift-off would have only one destination. That, the Thek had made quite clear. Trying to shake off the after-effects of that extraordinary experience and access the Discipline-retained memories, she let Ford and Lunzie shepherd them into the pinnace for the short hop back to the cruiser. But she couldn’t organize her thoughts beyond responding to the implanted instructions.
Once in her quarters she gave the necessary orders and then paused to catch her breath. The Thek had somehow compressed the very air inside their cathedral, enervating to the humans, and what she’d really have liked was a long quiet stretch of solitary meditation, to regain her own sense of space.
Half-bemused, and half-annoyed, she noticed that Lunzie was not so patient. Her Great-great-great prodded Ford into finding her liquor cabinet, poured drinks for everyone, and offered a toast “To the survivors!”
Sassinak drank, thinking to herself that Lunzie must have enjoyed that Sverulan brandy as much as it deserved, to be so eager to find more. Prior to the conference, Lunzie had buffered Kai and Varian and now she snapped them out of it. They burst into speech, and stopped as their voices clashed.
Sassinak chuckled. “Cruss took quite a beating.” Gingerly she touched her temples where a massive head-ache was gathering. “We all did.”
“Despite our clear consciences and pure hearts,” Varian added with a sly grin at Lunzie. Sassinak depressed the comunit button. “Pendelman, request Lieutenant Commander Dupaynil to join us. And didn’t we just get exactly the information we needed. Cruss spilled his guts. Not that I blame him.”
“Then you know who’s behind the piracy?” Lunzie asked, excited.
“Oh, yes. I’ll wait until Dupaynil gets here. Kai and Varian have been covered with glory, too. Which is only fair.”
Kai took up the narrative then, explaining that they had rescued a Thek who had been trapped for eons and buried so deeply it had been unable to summon help. Originally Ireta had been earmarked as a feeding ground with its rich transuranics so satisfying to Thek appetites, hence the cores. The Thek Ger had been guardian, to make certain young Thek did not strip the planet of its riches and leave it a barren husk.
“The Thek are the Others,” Lunzie gasped.
“That is the inescapable conclusion,” Sassinak agreed. “Thek are nothing if not logical. We were also exposed to quite a hunk of Thek history. I’ll joggle the rest out of my head later. The relevant fact is that it became apparent to the Thek after a millennium of gorging that, if they couldn’t curtail their appetites, they ran the risk of eating themselves out of the galaxy.”
“No wonder they had an affinity for dinosaurs,” Fordeliton exclaimed with a whoop of laughter.
“We get to preserve them now,” Varian said, rather proudly.
Kai grinned shyly. “Ireta is restricted, of course, as far as transuranics go but I, and my ‘ilk,’ as they put it, have the right to mine anything up to the transuranics for… is it as long as ‘we’ live? I’m not sure if the limit is just for my lifetime.”
“No,” said Lunzie. “By ilk, the Thek probably mean the ARCT-10, for as long as it survives. You deserve it, Kai. You really do.”
“Curiously enough,” Sassinak said into the respectful pause that followed, “the Thek did appreciate the fact that you all have lost irreplaceable time. Thek justice is unusual.”
Thek had lumped all humans - the timelagged, the survivors, and the descendants - in one group as survivors. They could remain or leave as they chose.
“I wonder if some of the Iretans might consider enlisting in the Fleet,” Sassinak mused, thinking of Aygar. “Wefts are excellent guards but Ireta produced some superb physical types. Ford, do see if we can recruit a few.”
“And the surviving member of the original heavyworlder contingent?” Lunzie asked.
“Mutiny cannot be excused, nor the mutineer exonerated,” Sassinak answered, her expression stem. “He is to be taken back to Sector Headquarters to stand trial. The Thek were as adamant on that score as I am.”
“And Cruss is being sent back?” Ford asked.
Sassinak steepled her fingers, permitting herself a satisfied smile. “Not only sent back but earthed for good. Neither he, his crew, nor any of the passengers will ever leave their planet. Nor will that transport lift again.”