Fallen Empire: Starseers Part 7

"No," he agreed.

They entered a wide corridor not much warmer than the outdoor landing pad had been, perhaps because the walls were made from blocks of ice. Alisa supposed other building materials might be scarce up here.

"Is there anywhere you go where people adore cyborgs?" she asked, remembering how even the boys on Perun, a planet still ruled by the empire, had feared him. It was the one place where she had expected former cyborg soldiers to be welcomed, maybe even treated as heroes.

"Are you saying you don't adore me?" Leonidas asked.

She gaped at him. "Was that a joke?"

"I suppose if you have to ask, it wasn't a good one."

"No, it's not that. It's just that your humor is so scarce." Alisa had yet to see him laugh. She'd told him on Starfall Station that she hoped to make it happen someday. That had been before she watched one of his old comrades die in his arms. She was beginning to see why not much in his life amused him.

"Cyborg adoration is scarce, too," he said. "In the empire, the subjects were glad you were there, fighting for them, and the same was true for other soldiers in the fleet. They were always bolstered to have a cyborg on their side. But when the fighting was over..." He seemed to shrug, but it was hard to tell under all the armor. "They didn't know what to do with you. Or how to treat you."

"Someday, you'll have to tell me why you signed up for that."

"Perhaps."

They had pa.s.sed a couple of intersections, and the Sta.r.s.eer procession took a turn at the next one, heading toward a set of wide stairs leading upward. They pa.s.sed two older men in robes who nodded to their brethren, ignored Yumi, Alejandro, and Alisa, and faltered when they spotted Leonidas. They stopped to glare at him. He watched them warily as he continued walking, like a panther thinking that he might have to spring and attack to avoid the bullets from a hunter's rifle. Abelardus looked over his shoulder at the men, shook his head, and continued on. The two older men glared a moment longer before continuing on their way.

"The Sta.r.s.eers seem even less likely to adore you than others," Alisa observed, thinking of the video they had seen on the cybernetics station, where a Sta.r.s.eer had been releasing deadly Octavian bears into the labs, presumably to eat the researchers.

Alejandro, walking close enough to hear their conversation, grunted at this statement of the obvious. Alisa ignored him, though she thought it would have been fitting if Abelardus had used his mind powers to throw him from the Nomad's ramp instead of Leonidas.

"They have a lot of reason to hate us. And to sabotage our livelihoods." He gave her a sidelong look, perhaps also thinking of that video. "Cyborgs turned the tide in the Order Wars. It was after the government started creating them and molding them into soldiers that our ancestors were able to come out ahead in physical battles. That's also where the a.s.sa.s.sination stories come in," he added, giving her another long look as they started up the stairs. She remembered mentioning to him that she'd heard stories of cyborgs a.s.sa.s.sinating Alliance leaders during the war. "Cyborgs were sent in to kill Sta.r.s.eer leaders, often in their sleep. It was the only way to ensure they couldn't use their mind powers. A Sergeant Callahan was reputed to have a.s.sa.s.sinated everyone in a temple with a knife in one night, almost a hundred people. In their sleep, Sta.r.s.eers are as human and vulnerable as the next person."

"Good to know," Alisa said, though inside, she found the casual way he spoke of such events chilling. She knew from personal experience that Leonidas was an honorable man, and she could not imagine him accepting such an a.s.signment, but he was also practical and did not shy away from being blunt about the realities of war.

"They committed atrocities of their own," Leonidas continued. "Putting aside the fact that they thought they were superior to all other humans and were trying to take over the entire system, they captured some cyborgs and kept them in a lab. They experimented on them, refining their methods for fighting-and killing-us. There are stories that they used to bring in their children, Sta.r.s.eers in training, and teach them to torture their prisoners with their minds."

Alisa swallowed. n.o.body was at war now, and the Sta.r.s.eers had not even been major players in the battle between the empire and the Alliance, so she hoped such practices were not needed, but she shuddered to think of her daughter being trained to be such a person, to have such skills.

"But that was all centuries ago," she said as the procession crossed a landing and approached huge double doors that stood open to a cavernous room with holodisplays in the air and flat-screen monitors on the walls. "n.o.body who was alive during the Order Wars is alive now."

"Old grudges die hard," Leonidas said. "And there have been incidents since then." He let his hand rest on his grenade launcher.

n.o.body had yet tried to take his weapons from him, nor had anyone searched Alisa or Yumi. Perhaps because the man who had attempted to poke into Alejandro's bag had received a hand around his throat. Or maybe the Sta.r.s.eers did not see Alisa and her crew as serious threats, grenade launchers included.

"Are you thinking of the Sta.r.s.eer who was responsible for killing that research scientist?" Alisa asked quietly.

"Among other things."

The procession stopped, and Alisa let the conversation drop. With all of the displays and monitors showing news feeds from all around Arkadius, maybe all around the system, it took her a moment to realize they had walked into what might be the equivalent of a castle's throne room. A wide, blue carpet runner stretched across a floor made of ice blocks-the blocks were textured so as not to be slippery-and it ended at a raised dais. There were three stout ice chairs there, each with a blue cushion on the seat, perhaps to keep one's b.u.t.t from freezing. Behind the dais sat a long ice table with built-in monitors that were also on, and normal wooden chairs around it. Command central, Alisa decided. Where the leaders came to mull things over and keep track of the system as a whole. The thrones were probably for formal meetings among their people, or maybe they were relics from a past era.

Abelardus stopped in front of the thrones, though n.o.body was sitting at them. He turned toward a side door in a wall under a large monitor where news was playing, an anchor talking about a recent earthquake in Mindar, one of the planet's southern continents. A bystander in front of a crumbled building was being interviewed, claiming that the earthquakes had become frequent since the Tri-Sun Alliance took control of the planet, and that they might be signs that the G.o.ds were angry with the change.

"Please," Alisa muttered.

Another interviewee posited that the Sta.r.s.eers were behind the earthquakes, that they were trying to take advantage of the change in government to catch people by surprise and drive them from Arkadius so they could claim the rich planet for themselves.

Surprised by the argument, Alisa looked at the squad of warriors. They had lined up to face the door beneath the monitor, their chests thrust out and their robes open again, their staffs held at their sides. Their focus was on the door rather than the monitor.

Alisa had heard various conspiracy theories that involved the Sta.r.s.eers before, but she was amazed that none of them reacted. As she looked around at the other monitors and holodisplays, some muted, but all with the words spoken scrolling along the bottom, she saw other mentions of Sta.r.s.eers. Maybe they had their computers programmed to pick up any news about their people that was being played in the various parts of the system, so they could be alert to trouble that might come their way. If her guess was correct and these feeds were running like this all day, she could see why the men did not react.

The door opened and a gray-haired woman in the ubiquitous black robe walked out, milky white eyes turned toward the ceiling, her bronze face weathered. A pendant dangled on a chain from her throat, the red moon and silver star symbol of the Sta.r.s.eer religion. Like the men, she carried a staff, but hers had glowing blue runes running along the side and gold caps on either end. She used it more like a walking stick than a weapon, which was probably necessary if she could not see out of those white eyes. Most people had blindness corrected with optical implants, but maybe someone who could see into suns with her mind had no need of something as prosaic as working eyeb.a.l.l.s.

The Sta.r.s.eers, Yumi's mother included, dropped to one knee as the woman entered.

"Uh?" Alisa looked at her pa.s.sengers, wondering if they were supposed to do the same.

Alejandro dropped to one knee. She wasn't sure if she should use him as a guide. He would go down on a knee to anyone who might help in his quest.

Yumi dropped to one knee, bowing her head. Leonidas folded his arms over his chest and remained standing. Alisa stuck her hands in her pockets and waited to see what happened.

"Rise, Abelardus," the woman-Lady Naidoo, presumably-said. The runes on her staff flashed.

Any kid with an electronics kit could have made something that could do that trick, but Alisa found it disconcerting, nonetheless. She understood that the Sta.r.s.eers themselves had power, but she hadn't realized they could make things that had power independent of them. Thinking of Alejandro's...o...b.. she decided she should have.

"I am Panita Naidoo," the woman said, not looking at Leonidas or Alisa, but instead addressing Alejandro. "I have been informed as to what you wish, and I must deliberate on it."

Erick, the bruises on his throat now darkening, scowled and glared over at Leonidas. Apparently, he had wanted more of a dismissal. Perhaps an execution order.

Alejandro opened his mouth, like he might protest or argue his point further, but he closed it and nodded. "Please let me know if I can offer any information to help in your deliberation."

Information? More like a bribe.

"I already visited the ruins of the Sta.r.s.eer temple on Dustor," Alejandro went on, "but I found it abandoned. I hope your people there were not disturbed by the war or affected by the bombing."

Leonidas stirred slightly. With his helmet turned toward the Naidoo woman, Alisa couldn't see his face. Maybe he just had an itch.

"Your concern for our people is touching," Naidoo said, a hint of dryness in her voice.

Maybe she could read minds. Not that it would take a mind reader to see through Alejandro's flattery.

For the first time, Naidoo looked over at Alisa and smiled slightly.

Uh. That was creepy.

Alejandro spread his arms. "I fully admit that my motives are single-minded, Lady Naidoo, but I work toward a greater good."

"The empire's greater good, yes, I have no doubt."

"I thought... It was my understanding that the Sta.r.s.eers, at least some of them, have a vested interest in the empire's greater good. Though I have also heard that some helped the Alliance win when there was no apparent reason for them to get involved. I must plead ignorance when it comes to Sta.r.s.eer politics."

"We're not a fully united people," Naidoo said, her voice still dry. "Were there not imperial subjects who had different political views? Of course there were, or there never would have been an alliance and a rebellion. It's not as if those people came from another galaxy."

"No, my lady. I understand."

"You will be shown to quarters where you may rest while I deliberate."

"If it's at all possible, I would prefer to rest in your library, my lady," Alejandro said.

"I'm sure you would. I must consider if I will allow that. Outsiders have not been permitted to study our ancient tomes for many decades. And, quite frankly, I do not know why you feel you should be so ent.i.tled, especially when you came here with a machine man, an enemy to the Sta.r.s.eers from centuries past."

Leonidas stood ramrod straight and did not react to the glower that Naidoo sent in his direction. Alisa found it disturbing that she was blind and yet knew exactly where they all were. And what they were.

Naidoo looked toward Yumi, who straightened alertly. Alisa again thought of how she had admitted to badly wanting to develop Sta.r.s.eer talents, to become one of them. She almost looked like a dog hoping for a pat from its master. "Yumi Moon, it is good to meet the daughter of one of our esteemed archivists, but you should not have presumed to come to this private home of ours, and you should not have brought outsiders."

Yumi's shoulders sagged, her gaze dropping to the icy floor. "I apologize, Lady Naidoo," she said, almost a whisper.

"Abelardus, show them to the guest quarters."

"Yes, my lady."

Alisa cleared her throat and raised a finger. So far, things were not going well for anyone in her party, but she might never see this Lady Naidoo again, clearly someone who was in charge or at least near the top of the power structure here. She had to speak now.

"Excuse me, uh, Lady Naidoo," Alisa said, feeling silly referring to someone as a lord or lady. How archaic. Did these people think they were special descendants of the G.o.ds because of some gene mutations? "I'm here on a different matter. Which you probably already know about. Along with my opinions on people who call themselves lords and ladies."

"Captain," Yumi whispered in a warning.

"Sta.r.s.eers kidnapped my daughter," Alisa said. "I can make some guesses as to why, but quite frankly, I don't think there are any acceptable reasons. I'm her mother. She belongs with me. I intend to get her back."

Yumi put her hand over her face. Apparently, one was not supposed to be blunt with Sta.r.s.eers. Alisa did not see why not. If they truly could read her thoughts, then what was the point of playing word games?

"I know from a reliable witness that a man named Durant was one of the kidnappers," Alisa continued. "Is there any chance he's here or that you know him?"

Naidoo merely frowned thoughtfully, but Abelardus shifted his weight. He had looked sharply in her direction when Alisa said the name.

"What is the name of your child?" Naidoo asked, ignoring the additional information and giving no indication whether she was irked with Alisa or not over her lack of reverence.

"Jelena Chaikin. Though my husband is gone now, so she'll be Jelena Marchenko."

"Chaikin." Naidoo nodded to herself. "I shall look into it personally while I am considering your friend's request."

"He's my pa.s.senger, that's it," Alisa said, thinking once again of the way Alejandro had casually mentioned that Alisa knew too much and maybe it would be better if she disappeared.

"I see," Naidoo murmured, her face turning from Alisa's to Alejandro's and back.

Alisa grimaced, wishing she hadn't brought that up, even in her thoughts. She was not a hundred percent certain that the woman was reading her mind, but if she was, Alisa had given her information that she did not want to share.

"Abelardus, the guest quarters," Naidoo said.

"Yes, my lady." Abelardus went down on one knee again before turning toward Alisa and the others. "This way." He pointed back toward the entrance to the throne room.

Alisa went along quietly, questioning whether to feel pleased with the results thus far or not. Naidoo hadn't been as openly irked with her as she had been with Alejandro, but she also had not appeared affronted by the idea that her people had been responsible for a kidnapping. She could have been lying about looking into things. She also could have silently commanded Abelardus to take them all to a dungeon or executioner's room rather than guest quarters.

Chapter 7.

There was neither an executioner's axe nor a dungeon in the suite of rooms that Alisa and her party were left in, only two bedrooms and a common room with sofas, chairs, and tables. The walls, floor, and ceiling were made of ice, the structural theme for the entire temple, it seemed, but at least the furnishings were normal.

After arriving, Alisa had plopped down onto a padded chair so her b.u.t.t was not in danger of freezing. Neither was the rest of her since she had found a stack of furs and quilts and pulled several over her.

Leonidas paced in front of the door, his combat armor presumably keeping him warm. Yumi had gone into one bedroom and sat cross-legged with her eyes closed, her face pointed toward a corner. Alejandro had closed the door and locked himself in the other bedroom.

"This is better than the dungeon I imagined them throwing us in," Alisa said, "but I would have preferred to wait on the ship."

"As would I," Leonidas said. He paused, touched his temple, then scowled and started pacing again.

"Is someone bothering you? Or are you just feeling vulnerable here?"

"Several people have... I would guess the right term would be that they've scanned me. Sometimes in a rough enough manner that I've been very aware of it. To say I have a headache is an understatement, but it could be worse, so I shouldn't complain."

"I would," Alisa said. "Either my thoughts aren't interesting enough for anyone to care about or I'm too obtuse to know when someone is scanning me."

Leonidas paced and did not respond. It would have been nice if he had told her she wasn't obtuse. She was beginning to learn that he wasn't the best person to go fishing for compliments around. Admittedly, in her experience, most men who went out of their way to compliment her were hoping to get her into bed. Leonidas seemed depressingly uninterested in that.

"Are your thoughts interesting?" she asked. "Or are the people scanning you simply being hostile because you're a cyborg and enjoy wrapping your fingers around Sta.r.s.eer throats?"

"I don't enjoy that, Marchenko," he said, giving her an aggrieved look. He had removed his helmet, and it sat on a bookcase by the door, so she could see his expressions more clearly now. "He was on the verge of attacking me and taking the doctor's artifact."

"I know. It was a joke. I'm sorry."

Leonidas went back to pacing. "I doubt my thoughts are interesting to them unless they're curious about the same thing the Alliance is curious about."

Alisa sat straighter in the chair, wondering if he might finally reveal why there was a two-hundred-thousand-tindark warrant out for his arrest. "Such as?"

He raised an eyebrow in her direction.

"If you tell me, I'll give you a ma.s.sage."

"What?" He b.u.mped the bookcase with his elbow, and it wobbled impressively, threatening to dump his helmet, along with some of the books.

"You look tense."

"Everyone here wants me dead."

"That's probably why you look tense."

He snorted.