Empire of Light

Chapter Twenty-nine

They made landfall not long afterwards, the yacht settling on to a cushion of shaped fields just a few kilometres from the mouth of the cache. Dakota pulled off the standard-issue jumpsuit she had been wearing, and folded it into a wad before dropping down from the yacht's open hatch, relying once more simply on her filmsuit for protection.

Her black-slicked toes kicked up a cloud of dust as she hit the ground, before she took a few bounding steps in the low gravity. She glanced behind her in time to see Nancy hit the ground only to be immediately swallowed in another billowing dust cloud that coated her pressure-suit in grey.

Dakota took a look around her. Outcrops of granite rose from a sea of dust that extended to the north, only coming to an end at the ridge-wall of a crater about ten kilometres away. To the west, and in the direction of the cache itself, the ground rose and fell in gentle inclines, like waves sculpted in stone. The overhead sun was bright enough to blot out the stars.

Trader emerged last, followed by the spider-mechs. One by one, the spiders skittered around the edge of the hatch, in an eerily lifelike way, before jumping down and flexing their elongated legs as they sca

Trader led the way, his brine-filled bubble hugging the curve of a nearby slope up to its peak. Dakota trudged through the dust after him and on up the side of the hill.

‹I was unaware we would have company,› he sent to Dakota as she came abreast of him.

Dakota glanced back at Nancy, who had just reached the foot of the hill. Her pressure-suit clearly made the going harder for her.

Officially, she's here to give us a hand. Unofficially, I'm top of their list of suspects for Olivarri's murder. She waited a beat. After yourself, of course.

The alien swivelled within his field bubble to study Schiller more closely as she struggled uphill, the spiders racing past her towards the peak. ‹So she is here to watch over us.›

Did you kill Olivarri, Trader?

The Shoal-members manipulators writhed beneath the wide curve of his belly. ‹How could I possibly carry out such a crime, seeing I have not even been allowed to board the frigate itself? Perhaps your inquiries should first turn to those who accuse you? I am sure Olivarri was not the only one with secrets.›

Dakota frowned. What secrets?

‹Ah.› The manipulators writhed again, and Dakota couldn't help but wonder if he was laughing at her. ‹Perhaps you were not aware Olivarri was secretly employed by the Consortium's intelligence division?›

Dakota actually took a step back. What? Where did you get this from?

‹That, I'm afraid, must remain with me. I have my sources.›

If you're lying to me-

‹Spare me your empty threats, Dakota.›

Trader moved off again, his bubble following the contours of the incline as he descended the other side of the hill. Dakota stayed where she was, staring off across the hilltops and brooding.

Who else, she wondered, was something other than what they appeared to be? She knew almost nothing about most of the Mjollnir 's contingent, particularly Perez, Driscoll and Nancy Schiller herself-all strangers to her until she boarded the frigate. They had each been vetted personally by Corso, but if Trader turned out to be telling the truth, what did that mean about the rest of them?

Who else might not be who they seemed?

Nancy finally came abreast of her, closely trailed by the spiders; her faceplate had polarized until it was nearly opaque beneath the bright glare of the sun overhead.

Dakota followed in Trader's path, soon leaving Nancy and the spiders behind once more. From the top of the next hill she could make out a low dome squatting on the wide flat plain surrounding the mouth of the cache, several hundred metres away. The dome's grey colouring made it almost invisible against the surrounding landscape, and there were the ruins of other buildings all across the plain.

Looking closer to hand, she saw Trader forging ahead of her, and jogged down into the next valley to catch up with the alien halfway up the next rise.

That dome. Is that where we're heading?

‹Most assuredly.› Trader turned in his bubble to look back towards Nancy, still making her way down the slope of the hill behind. ‹Our companion appears to be getting left behind. Perhaps it would be amusing for us to hide and see how she reacts?›

Dakota ignored this remark as she watched Nancy laboriously make her way towards them.

That's not the way to do it, Dakota sent to her. Run on your toes, like you're skipping.

‹I'm doing just fine.›

Then you won't mind if we leave you behind.

Nancy swore, then pushed up and off the ground with both feet. She came sailing back down in a low arc and landed on her hands and knees. Dakota watched as she picked herself up and tried again. This time it looked like she tripped over in slow motion, but managed to catch herself on the way back down.

I'm surprised you're having such a hard time. You were pretty nimble during the hull repairs.

‹Yeah, well, that's different,› Nancy replied.

How?

‹It just is, okay? I'm almost there.›

Dakota followed Trader downhill, herself bounding in long, low, skipping strides. Despite her mood and the shock of Trader's revelation, not to mention Nancy's seemingly boundless hostility, a part of her was actually begi

She could see the dome more clearly from the next hilltop, beyond which lay only level plain stretching towards the cache's abyssal pit. She saw now that, mixed in with the ruined buildings, there were what appeared to be the remains of a huge spacecraft broken into several sections and half buried in the dust.

As Dakota jogged down to the edge of the plain, she realized the dome was a lot bigger than it appeared at a distance. It had to be at least a hundred metres across, but no more than twenty in height, and it had presumably been designed to withstand whatever forces had destroyed the buildings surrounding it. Trader was well ahead of her by now and, as she started to make her way across the level ground, she saw him pass inside an entrance in one side of the dome, the sparkle of his field-bubble faintly illuminating the interior of the passageway beyond.

She soon reached it herself and stepped into its interior, noting how the relatively tiny i

Dense drifts of dust gradually began to appear out of the gloom, as the filters over her eyes adjusted for the lack of light. She saw waist-high racks stretching from wall to wall in orderly ranks, with wide aisles ru

Is this what we're here for?

Trader guided his bubble down a side aisle, his huge eyes swivelling from left to right. ‹These are modular shaped-field generators designed for use in battle situations. One must assume the colony here was wiped out before they could be used.›

Dakota turned in time to see the spiders were now threading their way in through the entrance, sending brilliant beams of light cutting through the darkness. Nancy followed them in soon afterwards.

‹I want to ask something,› Nancy sent. ‹What did for all those ruins out there? I saw what looked like the remains of some kind of ship.›

The Meridians slaughtered each other over possession of the cache, Dakota replied. But it all happened a long, long time ago.