Chapter Fifty-Six
The guard saluted as Caine left the room, then smartly resecured the hatch with the crisp, focused motions of a rating who was being observed during inspection. How the hell do they even know I held a rank? Caine returned the salute, turned the corner to return to his room—and came face to face with Alnduul.
“It is pleasant meeting you here, Caine Riordan.”
“It pleases me to see you also, Alnduul. What brings you to the secure section of the ship?”
“You do, Caine Riordan. It is where I was told I would find you.”
Ah. “Will you walk with me as I return to my quarters?”
“I would be glad to walk with you, Caine Riordan, but I bring news that Confederation Consuls Sukhinin and Visser wish to meet with you in the forward conference suite. I hoped we might walk there together.”
And work a little of that subtle Dornaani discursive magic as we go, eh? “Let us walk, then.”
As they walked, Caine waited, counting off the seconds. Had he been asked to guess, he would have predicted a prefatory fifteen-second silence.
Just as Caine mentally ticked off “seventeen,” Alnduul asked, “The Arat Kur persist in their refusal to return your communiqués?”
“So I am told.”
“And Delegate Kut cannot intercede?”
“He does not believe he can. And he seems to have become physically indisposed. I witnessed something similar when he was isolated prior to our rescue at Barnard’s Star. But this time, there was no apparent causal trauma.”
“I see. And you? Are you quite well?”
“Er… yes.” Caine wished Alnduul had asked one of his maddeningly oblique questions, instead. This jarringly sudden—and apparently dispassionate—shift to personal pleasantries made Riordan wonder if Dornaani calm also concealed an almost sociopathic detachment. “You tried talking to the Arat Kur? No progress? Ho hum, I suppose their species has to die, then. Such a pity.” But Caine simply added, “I’m okay.”
Alnduul nodded. “Clearly, the hepatic regrowth agents are proving efficacious. This is gratifying to me.”
“Well, that’s nothing compared to how gratified my people must be that you decided to come to Earth after all.”
“I regret having to deny my intent to travel to Earth after the Convocation, but Mr. Downing asserted that possible leaks in your intelligence structure made it imperative that my visit remain a secret. Had the Arat Kur learned of our presence, they might have become far more cautious. Consequently, the outcome of the conflict might have been far less decisive.”
“You must have brought a fair amount of equipment with you as well.”
“We did, but why do you so conjecture?”
“Well, it stands to reason, given how you were able to accede to our request to give our ships the ability to counterattack the Arat Kur. I imagine that it requires a number of fairly bulky subsystems to modify our carriers for shifts to and from deep space.”
Alnduul’s eyelids nictated once. “Apologies, but I must correct your surmise, Caine Riordan. It was not your leaders who asked for the deep space shift modifications. We Custodians offered this assistance. Indeed, it was one of the primary reasons I was sent to your world.”
“So you didn’t come in the role of a diplomat, but as a techno-military adviser.”
“Let us say my mission was multifaceted.”
“With an emphasis on ensuring that we could adequately defend ourselves.”
“In truth, I was not overly concerned about the success of your defensive efforts. After considerable study, we were confident that, once the device in your arm came within a few meters of a suitable computer, the Arat Kur defeat was certain.”
“So what was your primary mission?”
Alnduul waved lazily about him. “To see to your arrival here. Dornaan wished to be certain of swift success against the Ktor, and this necessitated that we keep our strength massed near our borders with them. The Slaasriithi are not particularly experienced or adept at military endeavors, so it fell to us to provide Earth with the means of sending her most advanced shift-carriers on a strategic counteroffensive into Arat Kur space.”
“And here we are.”
“It is as you say. And our plans have largely unfolded as we envisioned. Your attack has caught the Arat Kur off-guard and they have lost the military initiative. I feel confident that they will never regain it and that you will use this moment to cripple their ability to make war for several decades to come. And it is a near-certainty that, upon learning of the capitulation of the Arat Kur homeworld, the Ktor will propose a truce and the process of rapprochement will begin.”
“Well, let’s hope the Arat Kur will surrender.” Riordan watched Alnduul’s face for any sign of a matching concern, any hint of alarm that the subtle charnel smell of genocide was seeping into the void left by the Arat Kur’s diplomatic silence.
But Alnduul merely responded, “Let us so hope. But regardless, your mastery of the situation is clear and the outcome is certain. And most gratifying.”
“Gratifying in what way?”
“Is it not obvious? Your foes thought to defeat you with surprise attacks and trickery, but found themselves overmatched by your own cunning use of the same tactics. You have indeed proven the wisdom of your race’s the axiom that, sometimes, one must fight fire with fire.”
Caine started. “You used that same phrase, right after Convocation, when you tried to warn me that war might be coming. And Nolan Corcoran used it just after Parthenon.” He turned to watch Alnduul’s features. “I’ve always wondered: did you use that phrase because Nolan had used it in conversation with me, several times before?”
“We Custodians are privy to many conversations between humans. It is difficult to keep track of all of them.”
Caine stopped walking. “Alnduul, don’t play games with me. I’ve tolerated your many oblique intimations and fortune-cookie axioms, but this time—this one time—I want a straight answer. You knew Nolan said that to me right before he died, didn’t you?”
Alnduul’s eyelids nictated once, slowly. “I—we—did.”
Caine spoke through the shiver that had spread cold fingers across his back. “We were alone when Nolan said it. No one else heard.”
“Yet we know.”
“But how—?”
Alnduul’s hand came up. “I answered your question. It was insightful and has revealed much to you. It suggests much more. But I will not answer questions pertaining to our methods.”
But suddenly, Caine was sure. “It was Nolan’s implant, wasn’t it?”
Alnduul’s lids fluttered.
“That organism in his chest wasn’t just to help his heart, was it? It gave you a means of exerting subtle control over him, possibly through timely alterations of body chemistry—”
Alnduul’s lamprey mouth straightened into a ghastly rictus. “We would not do what you imply.”
“No? Isn’t that just the kind of long-term strategy you’d use to control the Hkh’Rkh, maybe even the Arat Kur?”
“Nolan Corcoran was a balanced being and a visionary among your kind. We control only those organisms which we deem, after long observation and innumerable confirmations, to be irremediable destabilizers of their own and others’ environments.”