The Golden Way (The Kestrel Chronicles Book 3) Page 2

  Exactly.

  She had the same square face and deep turquoise eyes. Her skin was the same golden hue. She had short blue hair like Zang’s, worn in a stripe along the top of her head just like Zang’s usual crest, but shorter. Even her uniform looked similar to Zang’s. Both were dark blue with white at the neck and chest and with crimson accents. The visitor’s uniform was darker, almost black, and it showed more gold buttons and braid.

  “Zang,” said the visitor. Her tone was cool.

  “Erdos,” said Zang in the same tone. She turned to Jaemon.

  “Jaemon Rayleigh, Executive Officer of the Rayleigh vessel Kestrel, this is Commander Erszbet Erdos, Chief of Solomon Security.”

  “We’ve met,” said Jaemon. “Nice to see you, Commander.”

  “Likewise, Mister Rayleigh,” said the visitor, nodding at him.

  “This is Ixion 11 Chrysotile,” Zang said, gesturing at me. “Kestrel’s doctor.”

  “Call me Lev,” I said.

  “Doctor,” said the visitor.

  “Able Spacers Angier and Yarrow,” Zang said, gesturing at our guards.

  Commander Erdos pushed herself back from the hatch and gestured toward a large man on her left.

  “This is Lieutenant Commander Gebre Isaac,” Commander Erdos said. “My customs chief.”

  Isaac said, “Charmed.” He nodded and smiled warmly.

  He was about as tall as Jaemon. His skin and his eyes were dark brown. His face was round and pleasant, with eyes that drooped a little at the edges and made him look sleepy. He had tightly-curled white hair cut close to his scalp. He wore a dark blue uniform like the Commander’s. I noticed a chaplain’s glyph on it. Lieutenant Commander Isaac belonged to the Church of the Makers.

  Erdos turned to her right and indicated a smaller man.

  “This is Lieutenant Timur Serik,” she said, “My chief of operational security.”

  Serik was slim and wiry. He nodded slowly. He had coffee-colored skin and a hint of a smile. His face was sharp, with a prominent aquiline nose and hard black eyes that looked hooded. His thick black hair was cropped close on the sides, just long enough on top to stand straight up. He wore a neatly-trimmed beard.

  Behind him several more people waited together, all of them in Solomon Security uniforms. Three transit cars sat out at the platform in front of our dock. They bore Security glyphs. The security people waited, watching the approaches.

  “Permission to come aboard, Mister Rayleigh?” said the Commander.

  “Come aboard,” said Jaemon. “The Captain is waiting for us in his mess.”

  Jaemon pushed back and floated. He gestured our visitors in. Commander Erdos came through the hatch and pushed herself to the side. She noted Angier’s and Yarrow’s sidearms with a glance. Isaac came through after her, and then Serik. Isaac smiled and nodded at Yarrow and Angier.

  “This way,” said Jaemon. He jetted around the companionway toward the lift cage.

  “Nice ship you have here,” said Commander Erdos. She looked around as we floated toward the lift, taking in the mahogany panels on the walls, the dark red and blue textured ceramic decks, and the polished hatches.

  “We used to operate a packet service,” said Jaemon. “Mainly serving the dreadnoughts.”

  “Including Solomon,” said Erdos. “I know.”

  “People that can afford that kind of service expect a certain amount of luxury,” said Jaemon.

  “Tough break for you guys,” said Isaac, smiling.

  “We’re bearing up,” said Jaemon, grinning back.

  He stopped at the lift. Kestrel slid the gate back for us and we crowded in.

  Captain Rayleigh was at the head of his table in the mess when we arrived. He rose as we entered. His chair made a tearing sound as he pulled away from it.

  Zang and Jaemon and I sailed over the mess table to seats on the far side. Commander Erdos and her people took chairs on the side by the hatch. We pressed ourselves down until the chairs took hold.

  “Welcome aboard,” said Captain Rayleigh. “This is our science director, Doctor Yaug.”

  He indicated the foot of the table.

  Yaug was a roughly humanoid figure more than two meters tall, swathed in black. He nodded at the Commander and her aides. His face was metallic gold and serene. He wore a large black hood and a heavy black robe that hid most of his body.

  “Welcome to Kestrel, Commander,” said Yaug. His voice was deep.

  “Thank you, Doctor,” said the Commander. She and Isaac stared at him. “Welcome to Solomon. May I ask what you’re a doctor of?”

  “I have research ratings in physics, biophysics, metrical informatics, and several of the protocol and life sciences.”

  “No kidding?” said Erdos. She frowned. “That’s pretty impressive. Seems like I should have heard of you.”

  “I have,” said Serik. His tone was languid. “Doctor Yaug’s a bit of a celebrity in strategic research.”

  “Strategic research?” said Erdos. “You’re a spy?”

  She looked him up and down.

  “I used to work for Strategic Sciences,” said Yaug.

  Erdos laughed skeptically.

  “He didn’t always look like that,” said Serik.

  “I guess not!” said Erdos.

  Yaug frowned.

  “Do I know you, Lieutenant Serik?” he said.

  “Do you?” said Serik. “I doubt it.”

  He smiled.

  “Well,” said Yaug. “As the Lieutenant says, I didn’t always look like this. I was once quite unobtrusive.”

  “So what’s this?” Erdos said, gesturing up and down Yaug’s body. “Compensation?”

  Yaug quirked a smile.

  “Perhaps,” he said.

  Gebre Isaac chuckled.

  “Can we offer you refreshments?” the Captain said. “Some coffee, maybe?”

  “No thank you, Captain,” said Erdos.

  “What can we do for you?” said the Captain.

  “Your ship reported a shooting incident,” said the Commander.

  “That’s right,” said the Captain.

  “What can you tell me about it?” said the Commander.

  “You’re Solomon’s security chief,” said Jaemon. “Your department polices nearly a million people. You always investigate shootings personally?”

  Erdos’ expression turned chilly.

  “How about we stick to business?” she said.

  Jaemon shrugged and smiled.

  “We met with Director Harken of the History Office,” said the Captain, “Down in Cargo Bay Two. Somebody killed Kestrel’s power, came aboard, and got into the bay with us. They shot us dead and took our cargo.”

  “You and several of your crew and two Lambertans. Is that right?”

  “Yep.”

  “You get off a shot at them?” said Isaac.

  “We weren’t armed,” said the Captain. “We were meeting a historian aboard our own ship, docked at a dreadnought of the Consortium fleet. I didn’t see a need for arms. It wasn’t hazardous duty. ”

  He shrugged.

  “Or so I thought. My mistake.”

  “You’ve changed your assessment, I take it?” said Erdos.

  The Captain half-smiled.

  “You noticed the guards at the hatch.”

  “They’re hard to miss,” said the Commander. “All of you were archived?”

  “Yep,” said the Captain. “All of us were. I don’t know about Director Harken.”

  “She’s fine,” said Serik. “I talked to her office.”

  The Captain nodded.

  “I’m glad to hear it.”

  “What do you know about your assailants?” said the Commander.

  “Lev?” said the Captain.

  I said, “Not much, yet. They knocked out our ship and the local Fabric before they came aboard, so we don’t have any record of them. We have forensic fog going over the cargo bay right now. Our bodies are in there, but they destroyed our brain
s, so we can’t get much that way.”

  “Destroyed them how?” said Erdos.

  Jaemon closed one eye and mimed shooting a pistol.

  “Ah,” said Erdos.

  “We have a mask that Zang took off one of the attackers,” I said. “We might be able to get some genetic traces from that.”

  “You got your hands on them?” said Isaac.

  “Apparently,” said Zang.

  “You were unarmed?”

  “Yep.”

  Isaac made an impressed face. He glanced at Commander Erdos.

  “Not bad,” he said. “So your ship got a look at one of them without his mask?”

  “No,” I said. “As I mentioned, she was knocked out.”

  “That’s right,” Isaac said. “Some kind of protocol weapon, was it?”

  “Kestrel says it was an electromagnetic pulse,” I said.

  Isaac raised his eyebrows.

  “EMP?” he said. “That seems pretty crude.”

  “It worked,” the Captain said. “I don’t know of a protocol weapon that could knock Kestrel out that quick.”

  “But you got this mask?” said Isaac.

  “Yes,” I said. “Spacer Zang was holding it in her hand.”

  Isaac frowned.

  “Will it tell you anything?” he said.

  “Could be,” said Jaemon. “Depends on what Lev can make of it.”

  Isaac looked a question at me.

  “Forensic medicine is my speciality,” I said. “I might not find anything on it. Then again, I might.”

  “What could you find?” Isaac said.

  “Let’s stay on point, Isaac,” said Erdos. “What did they take?”

  “A field archive,” said the Captain. “An old one. Circa 2300 A.D.”

  “Wow,” said Isaac. “That is old.”

  The Captain nodded.

  “Prebellum,” he said. “Over forty-five hundred years old.”

  Serik raised his eyebrows a little.

  “What’s in it?” he said.

  “Looks like a soldier,” I said.

  “What kind?” Isaac said.

  “Male,” I said. “Mostly human.”

  “‘Mostly?’” said Erdos.

  “Augmented,” I said. “Human-mech hybrid.”

  “A shipboard knight?” said Serik. Isaac looked over at him.

  “Maybe,” said the Captain. “It’s the right age. It’s pretty much what one would look like. Doesn’t mean that’s what it is. It’s valuable either way, though, as a historical artifact.”

  “Could it be decanted?” said Serik.

  “You mean revived?” said the Captain. He looked at me.

  “Maybe,” I said. “It’s pretty much intact. We don’t know for sure. I need more time to study it.”

  “Have to get it back for that,” said Isaac.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “What were you planning to do with it?” said Erdos.

  “That’s really for Captain Harris to say,” said the Captain. “His crew discovered it.”

  “He’s the owner of the Lucky Strike?” said Erdos.

  “Yes,” said the Captain.

  “You’re working under contract?”

  “That’s right,” said the Captain.

  “We talked to his office, too,” said Erdos. “They said you were here to discuss a possible acquisition with Director Harken.”

  “Must be why we’re here,” said the Captain.

  The Commander’s eyes flickered.

  “You don’t want to confirm what they told us?”

  “Best talk to Harris about that,” said the Captain.

  Erdos looked irritated, but she nodded.

  “What are your plans?” she said.

  “That would be up to our employer,” said the Captain.

  “I bet your employer wants it back,” said Isaac. “I would. A shipboard knight!”

  “We don’t know that’s what it is,” said the Captain.

  “You don’t know it isn’t,” said Isaac. “It could be Kenjiro Isono, for all you know.”

  The Captain almost smiled. Serik frowned at Isaac.

  “For all we know it could,” said the Captain. “But it’s up to Captain Harris to decide.”

  Erdos nodded.

  “That’s your business,” she said. “It’s your property, stolen from your ship. One thing though.”

  She paused and tipped a look at Jaemon.

  “I heard about you, Mister Rayleigh,” she said. “And you.” She pointed at me. “I checked you out. You were criminal investigators with the Guard on Mars. Good ones, from what I hear. But you’re not with the Guard now, and this isn’t Tharsis. This is my ship.”

  “Sure,” said Jaemon.

  “No funny business,” said Erdos.

  “Funny business?” said Jaemon.

  Erdos just looked at him.

  “What are you suggesting?” said Zang.

  Erdos shifted her gaze to Zang.

  “I’m not suggesting it. I’m saying it straight out. Don’t get the idea that you have any authority here. You don’t. Solomon is my ship.”

  She pointed a finger at Zang.

  “You’re not Security here, Zang, not anymore. Rayleigh, Doctor, you’re not the Guard here. You can talk to whoever wants to talk to you, but I’d better not hear about any threats or strongarm tactics.”

  “We know all of that, Commander,” said Jaemon.

  “Good. Be sure you remember it.”

  “Commander,” said the Captain. “My people are professionals.”

  Erdos looked at him, then at Jaemon.

  She said, “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  7.

  Zang and Jaemon escorted our visitors back down the lift. I stayed in the Captain’s mess.

  “Nobody said anything about it,” I said.

  “About what?” said the Captain.

  “About the Commander’s resemblance to Zang,” I said.

  “Lev,” said the Captain. He sighed. “Zang was security aboard Solomon. You know that.”

  He looked at me, eyebrows raised.

  I thought it over. The obvious finally occurred to me.

  “Oh,” I said. “They’re clones.”

  “Of course they are,” said the Captain.

  “Is Zang a creche beta?” I said.

  “Maybe,” said the Captain. He shrugged. “I didn’t ask. Erdos gave Zang a good reference. So did Solomon’s commander.”

  “Captain-General Erdos, isn’t it?” I said. “They’re related?”

  “The Commander’s father,” said the Captain.

  “Ah,” I said.

  “Ah,” said the Captain.

  “Maybe there was a creche accident,” I said.

  “Maybe,” said the Captain.

  “It happens sometimes. Someone flatlines and a creche is activated, but then the original is revived.”

  “Sometimes,” said the Captain.

  “But you don’t know.”

  “I try not to pry,” he said.

  “I wonder why Zang left Solomon,” I said.

  The Captain shrugged.

  “I guess Zang and Erdos don’t always get along. Maybe you noticed.”

  “I did,” I said.

  “Maybe they’re too much alike,” he said.

  I thought about working with two Zangs. I liked Zang. Most of the crew liked her. She did tend to fill up a large room all by herself, though.

  “Erszbet Erdos,” I said. “Erszbet Zang. Isn’t that unusual?”

  “Yep.”

  “Isn’t it common practice for a beta to take a different name?”

  “She changed Erdos to Zang.”

  “I thought it was considered gauche to keep the original’s name, or even a part of it.”

  “It is,” said the Captain.

  I thought about it.

  “Seems a little awkward,” I said.

  “It does,” said the Captain.

  “Do you th
ink we’ll have any problems with them?” I said. “With Zang and Erdos, I mean.”

  The Captain looked at Doctor Yaug. Yaug said nothing.

  “I don’t see why we wouldn’t,” said the Captain. “Doc?”

  Yaug looked at him.

  “Why so quiet?” said the Captain.

  “Thinking,” said Yaug. “Trying to remember something.”

  “Remember what?” said the Captain.

  Yaug shook his head.

  “I don’t know. I can’t remember. It’s just...”

  He looked out the hatch.

  “What?” said the Captain.

  “That officer. Serik?”

  “What about him?”

  “He reminds me of someone.”

  “Who?”

  Yaug was still for a long moment, then shook his head again.

  “I don’t know.”

  8.

  Jaemon, Zang, and I sat with Doctor Yaug in the Captain’s mess. The image of a man’s head floated above the table. He had an open, friendly face with pale skin and dark eyes. His black hair was cropped very short.

  “You found this guy how?” said the Captain.

  “Saliva traces on the inside of Zang’s mask,” I said. “The mask she pulled off one of the attackers.”

  “Jo Jetjirawat,” said Zang.

  “You know him?” Jaemon said.

  Zang shook her head.

  “Solomon knows him. He’s a former Security officer.”

  “Former?” Jaemon said.

  “Served two contracts aboard Solomon, then mustered out to join the Sacred Host.”

  “The Church military,” I said.

  “That’s right,” Zang said.

  “So he’s religious?” Jaemon said.

  Zang shrugged.

  “Maybe. Or maybe he’s from a Makerist family.”

  “He still with them?” Jaemon said.

  “Listed as ‘detached,’ according to their office on Solomon.”

  “What does that mean?” Jaemon said.

  “No idea,” said Zang.

  “Gebre Isaac is a Makerist chaplain,” I said.

  Zang looked at me.

  “That’s right,” she said. “So what?”

  I shook my head.

  “I don’t know. I noticed his glyph, that’s all.”

  She nodded.

  She said, “We should give this guy’s name to Isaac. Security can pick him up.”