Chapter 10
July 5, Year 214 NPrE
Almonzeia, the capital of the MT Corporation's colonies on Almonzis
Ax, in his formal black-and-blue uniform, waited for the passenger at the door of car 56. She walked quickly down the platform, holding onto a wide-brimmed straw hat. Instead of her usual uniform, the passenger wore blue trousers and a loose, sleeveless white blouse. Two suitcases floated behind her.
"Good morning, Madame!" Fontaine greeted her. "I hope your journey on our express will be a true pleasure!"
"Do you say that to all the passengers?" Phan asked.
"No, that line is usually delivered by the head of guest services. I learned it just for you." He opened the doors and with a grand gesture invited the major inside. She ran up the wrought-iron stairs, looked around, and whistled:
"Luxurious!"
"This is just third class. You haven't seen second, first, the suites, or premium."
"And the others, fourth through sixth?"
"Transgalactica-2 class expresses don't have them," Ax said in an official tone and led Phan to the elevators. "How did your bosses get so generous?"
"It's part of my bonus for the liquidation of Aviles. Besides, we still haven't found the container," Phan added. "So until we do, you'll have to put up with me in your workplace."
"Fortunately, it's very large," Axel said good-naturedly. "Briareus is the longest of all the expresses in its class. We might not run into each other for the entire voyage."
"That's the problem. Where could your girl have hidden our container?"
"I have no idea," Ax admitted. "Fleischmann, Leśniewska, and I have searched everywhere — the compartments, the service cars, the passenger luggage, the supplies for the crew and the express. Makriiri and his team crawled under the train's belly — though we had to cut the power to the tracks — but there's nothing there either. Listen, have you considered... that Aviles might have tricked us and somehow gotten the container out before the firefight started?"
"I have," Phan nodded. "In that case, he either turned to dust in the factory explosion, or he's already on his way to the client. A pity," she added dryly, "that we can't question Aviles anymore."
"Have you requested his real dossier?"
"No."
"Because you don't have Z-clearance?"
"Because I don't believe in that nonsense," Phan hissed. The elevator took them to the third deck, and she headed towards her compartment. Fontaine followed, wondering how the name "Sai Asheron" had ever leaked beyond the classified documents.
He couldn't find a single mention of such a structure, unit, or class of beings on MT's websites — but he vividly remembered the stories about Sai Asheron that circulated in the cadet barracks. Many dreamed of one day joining that unit.
"Except no one ever did," Fontaine thought. It was all very strange...
"This is nice," Phan remarked, entering her compartment. "It even has a bar."
"Make yourself at home. Have they assigned you here for long?"
"Until I find the container, or proof that Aviles blew himself up with it. I hope you don't see this as an intrusion on your territory?" Phan asked worriedly. "I have no intention of interfering with your work."
"Don't worry. I want to find that thing as much as you do." Ax glanced at his watch. "I have to go. Madame starts her rounds in fifteen minutes."
"So early? It's only eight in the morning."
"Yes, and the train is long. She always starts with the security car, so..."
"I won't keep you," the major smiled and sank into the armchair by the porthole with a blissful sigh. "After all, I'm entitled to enjoy my vacation a little, aren't I?"
***
Anna Dmitrievna had barely stepped over the threshold of the engineering car when all the members of the technical brigade, lined up against the walls, bowed in perfect synchronization. Fontaine barely suppressed a smile.
Chief Engineer Shen Wei was the kindest of souls, utterly removed from tyranny or despotism. But on the day of the pre-voyage inspection, something in his mind snapped, and he demanded his subordinates observe all the ancient Min Shu etiquette rules for receiving high-ranking officials. Once every six months, they all felt like they were at the court of the Emperors in the Golden Age.
The chief engineer approached Lavrova, carrying a stack-key on a silver platter, and silently bowed to her at a perfect forty-five-degree angle.
"Are the protective systems ready?" the Express Chief asked.
"Yes, Madame."
"Are the navigation panels connected?"
"Yes, Madame."
"Are the life support systems functioning?"
"Yes, Madame."
"Excellent." Anna Dmitrievna took the stack-key and walked along the human corridor towards the wall dominated by a massive panel. Fontaine followed, again feeling his heart beat faster. This was one of two moments that always stirred him, like a raw cadet – the first launch.
To Lavrova's right walked the chief engineer; to her left, Rajeev Varma, the head of guest services; slightly behind, Lars Kellerman. Anna Dmitrievna stopped before the panel and nodded to Shen Wei. He activated it, and an image from the cameras inside the locomotive appeared before them. Entering it without protective suits was impossible – even with the engine off, the residual radiation would incinerate a person on the spot, and a being too.
Shen Wei selected a camera located in the solar drive compartment and displayed the image full-screen. Inside a huge, tall chamber floated three spheres of different sizes – transparent, with a whitish mist swirling within. Ax understood nothing about the solar drive's operating principle, but the moment of awakening always fascinated him.
Anna Dmitrievna inserted the stack-key into the slot and gestured for Shen Wei to approach. He touched the panel, then leaned into the retinal scanner, and once the data was confirmed, turned the stack-key.
A thin chain glinted around Lavrova's neck in the light of the indicators that lit up on the panel. On it hung the Express Chief's personal stack-key, which she took from her breast pocket. She removed the chain, inserted it into the slot, repeated the chief engineer's actions, and pressed the button between the keys. Ax held his breath.
Every time, he felt like nothing would happen. But then a second passed – and the three spheres slowly began to fill with a golden light. At first, it was transparent and thin, like a haze, but with each passing second, it grew brighter, more dazzling, as if three tiny, real suns were contained within the chamber. When the bright golden glow made Fontaine's eyes water, Shen Wei activated the filters. And at that moment, the three suns began to move.
Ax watched as they danced around each other, in a rhythm that pulsed like a heartbeat, until the floor trembled beneath his feet. The entire express swayed gently and rose above the power rails. It was now disconnected from the depot's power grid – its life was sustained only by the solar drive.
Anna Lavrova removed her stack-key, put the chain around her neck, and tucked the key into her breast pocket. Then she turned to the engineering and technical brigade. The poor souls were still frozen in their bows.
"The drive is activated," the Express Chief announced. "The voyage has begun. Let's get to work, gentlemen."
With a barely audible sigh of relief, the brigade members rushed to their work terminals. That evening, they would haul a ton of painkillers for backaches from the medical car's pharmacy – Shen Wei on departure day was ruthless.
Lavrova left the engineering car and headed to the command car. There, Anna Dmitrievna settled into her terminal chair, activated the loudspeaker, and announced:
"The 'Briareus' Express is commencing its eighty-fourth voyage. The drive is activated. Navigators, is the route ready?"
"Yes, Madame," Harada's voice came over the intercom. "Ready for departure."
"Proceed," said Lavrova.
The great serpent took several minutes to wake. Ax watched the screen without blinking – the Briareus swayed, as if stretching; the power rails hissed and disappeared into their grooves; the floor shuddered once more – and the train began to glide out of the depot, towards the platform, towards the Arch of the stream-tunnel. Its long, dark blue body, patterned in silver, burst out into the bright sun of Almonzeia, and Axel could only imagine how the beast's scales dazzled the eyes of all the passengers on the platform.
"Thank you for your escort, gentlemen," Anna Dmitrievna said. "Return to your posts."
"Yes, Madame," they replied in disarray. Ax was the last to leave the command post, letting Kellerman and Rajeev Varma go ahead of him. He always wanted to prolong this moment – until the second, no less magnificent one arrived.
***
Ax stood by the porthole, watching the now-empty platform. The entire bustling, noisy crowd had vanished, as if it had never been there – the passengers had disappeared into the cars, the last well-wishers were leaving the platform on the escalators. A few robotic porters could still be seen, but soon they too would be gone. Nothing and no one should be on the platform when the Arch opened.
Of course, every stream-train is equipped to open mini-Arches independently – in case of an emergency requiring an urgent exit from a stream-tunnel or, conversely, from a planet. But trains like the Transgalactica-2 always used only the station Arches, even though the most modern stream-gate[1] was installed in the locomotive.
Silence fell. After a few seconds, it was broken by a loud click, as shielding panels emerged from beneath the platform on both sides. They sparkled in the sunlight like metallic wings. Ax, shielding his eyes from the direct and reflected light with his hand, watched as they rose high and closed over the Briareus's roof, forming an impenetrable barrier against energy and radiation.
The express was plunged into momentary darkness, soon broken by a muffled hum, and then lights, like a wreath of precious gems, flared up on the Arch ahead. The Arch hummed deeply, gathering power – a massive ring, one-quarter buried underground, glowing ever brighter, entwined with a thousand lights. A faint vibration ran through the express's hull from the intensifying hum, and the cup on Fontaine's table rattled.
The first flash appeared in the center of the ring.
One by one, they ignited within the Arch, swirling into a brilliant vortex until they filled its entire space. And then, as if someone had pulled back a curtain – the vortex receded to the Arch and encircled it with a blazing golden ring. Before Ax lay the open stream-tunnel – transparent yet dense, black yet multicolored, still yet constantly moving, devoid of light yet illuminated by myriad fires. Every time, Fontaine gazed into it, trying to comprehend, but he could never afterwards describe what he had seen.
The Briareus lurched forward and raced towards the Arch. The moment the locomotive flew into the burning ring, it vanished, as if dissolved into the stream-tunnel – and after it, the cars, one by one. The Arch rushed towards Fontaine with terrifying speed, its lights blinding, and when it was so close, Ax couldn't bear it and squeezed his eyes shut. The portholes disappeared behind protective shields. A moment of darkness – and then fluorescent lights flickered on throughout the car.
Axel stepped back from the porthole, his heart pounding. He couldn't even begin to imagine what Marco Tadić must have felt when he first opened a stream-tunnel and witnessed that unimaginable sight – tunnels stitching the cosmos together like needles, currents beyond ordinary space and time. And now, thanks to Tadić, stream-trains sail through them, carrying humanity from star to star and planet to planet.
"For this alone, the Tadićs could be forgiven everything," Fontaine thought, stepping away from the porthole with regret (it always ended too quickly!) and sat down at his terminal. Ahead lay the familiar routine of work, only slightly overshadowed by the search for the container. But Ax hoped to deal with that too in the coming weeks.
Epilogue
Night of June 11–12, Year 214 NPrE
Al-Haiyan, the capital of the Sultanate of Er-Rummal's colonies on Tar-Mariat
"And I say they should die!" Ramos snarled. "Interrogate them right here, record everything, and finish them both!"
Maria Fialkovskaya sighed. She was exhausted, and the last thing she wanted was to argue with a stubborn pup who fancied himself a great strategist and tactician.
"You intend to interrogate prisoners under surveillance, in the middle of the florofauna thickets at night, risking the arrival of police, Al-Shadiyar agents, and Corporation soldiers?" she inquired. Ramos glowered.
"Those two will lead them here anyway! We'll dump the bodies on the road and throw the hounds off the trail!"
"That makes no sense," Isio Toro said softly. "Even if we kill the hostages, we'll still have the case with the embryos. I assure you, the MT investigators and agents will hunt for them far more persistently."
"And for the archive too," Fialkovskaya added silently. And if you add Shufrir's and Anger's testimony to that archive, it would turn into a bomb of unprecedented power. It would blow away both the Corporation and several of its puppet governments.
"All the more reason to keep them alive is pointless!" Ramos declared. "They're only thinking about how to escape or cause more trouble!"
Fialkovskaya looked at the prisoners. Shufrir was trembling incessantly, as if in a seizure, his eyes fixed on Ramos in terror. Anger, tall, thin, awkward, birdlike, looked as if he still couldn't believe any of this was real.
"Has anyone ever told you why hostages are taken?" Maria asked. "Papa may have even mentioned why live hostages are more valuable than dead ones."
"Dead ones don't talk!"
"Exactly. And we need them to talk. Trust me, they have things to say."
"What would you know about it, you desk rat," Ramos said contemptuously.
Fialkovskaya wiped the sweat from her brow, caused by the stifling heat of the living forest. Ramos was one of Luther's young soldiers, one of those who worshipped him as a prophet, and Maria knew many disliked her because the children were jealous of their deity.
Usually, she found it more amusing than anything, but not now – not when they were surrounded by the curious and carnivorous florofauna in the dark of night, when MT and Al-Shadiyar agents could be on their trail any minute, when it was vital to get off Tar-Mariat as soon as possible. And this pup was undermining her authority among the people and beings she was meant to command.
"Kindly watch your language," Isio Toro said, glancing at Fialkovskaya. She shook her head. If she laid the problem on the epsilon's shoulders, it wouldn't earn her any respect.
"Nothing to watch," Ramos snapped. "She did her job; we'd be better off shooting her along with them."
Fialkovskaya felt the eyes of everyone around her. There were two groups: the one she had led out of the city, and the one led by Toro – Papa had sent them to meet Maria.
"I would be curious to hear the reasoning behind that decision," she said coldly.
"Huh?"
"You're proposing radical measures. I'm asking how they would help us."
"You're one of them," Ramos nodded at Shufrir and Anger. "You were never in the Cause like us," he gestured to both groups.
"I've been working for your Cause for twelve years. Longer than you've been carrying a weapon, boy."
"You're just Papa's whore, and..."
Fialkovskaya drew her pistol and shot him in the forehead. Ramos gasped, threw up his arms, and collapsed into the thick grass, which immediately began wrapping him in countless tendrils. A shocked gasp ran through the groups.
"The Cause does not tolerate dissent," Maria announced impassively; her heart was pounding as if she had run for miles without stopping. "The hostages will come with us to the rendezvous point. Those who are unhappy with Papa's decision can voice their objections now, so we don't have to litter our entire path with corpses."
The people were silent. The canopy of florofauna lowered, closing them off from the dark sky.
"Objections?" Maria repeated. The hand holding the pistol was trembling slightly, and Fialkovskaya hoped it wasn't visible in the darkness.
No one said a word.
"Isio, dispose of the body further away," Maria ordered. The epsilon closed his eyes. Ramos's body rose from the ground. The grass blades rustled indignantly and released their prey. After a moment's thought, Toro inclined his head towards the densest thicket. The corpse flew into it like a rocket and disappeared among the tangled living branches. An interested rustling immediately came from there.
"O-oh, Al-l-lah..." Shufrir stammered. "M-m- Maria! S-save..."
"I didn't do this out of love for you," Fialkovskaya cut him off. "You need to live long enough for your masters to pay for what they've done. Philippe?"
Anger looked at her. Judging by his expression, he barely understood what was happening around him, but his large eyes had grown even larger and darker with fear. Maria felt sorry they had taken him. He was a decent person, and they had even become friends over the past ten years.
"Get them both up. It's time to go."
The group obeyed without question. The two strongest men began clearing a path towards the rocks.
"The first one is always the hardest," Isio Toro said, barely audible. Fialkovskaya let her shoulders drop. "But the more there are, the easier each subsequent one becomes."
***
Deep in the caves of the Fanzil mines, far below the surface, hidden from scan-drones and geoscanners, they gathered around the hostages. Luther had decided that everyone would listen – all twenty-three people and beings.
A chair was placed under a bright lamp, and opposite it, a video camera on a tripod. Shufrir was the first to be seated. He was sweating and trembling profusely. When the group's doctor approached him with an injector, he flinched with a panicked cry, nearly falling off the chair. Isio caught him, sat him back down, and held him in place. Using only psychokinesis, of course – they had no intention of showing their faces, and the doctor was also masked.
"I am administering neuroveritine to the hostage," she said and made the injection. "It's a fast-acting truth drug."
The doctor stepped back out of the circle of light. Maria found Anger with her eyes – he hadn't spoken a word the entire time, and she was beginning to fear for his sanity.
"Are you ready to talk?" Fialkovskaya asked, addressing the former head of the perinatal center.
"I'll give you money!" he declared. "Much more than he's paying you!" Shufrir jerked his head towards Magrinha. "Let me go, and I won't tell anyone anything! I swear by Allah!"
"And if we don't let you go?"
"They'll find you! The Corporation will find you, Al-Shadiyar will..."
"Why would they bother looking for you? What exactly, besides your official duties, do you do at the Al-Haiyan perinatal center that is so valuable?"
"I..." Shufrir faltered. His face turned grey, and sweat streamed down his forehead and neck. He was fighting it, Maria could see, but the drug was stronger, and Shufrir finally forced out: "I have been entrusted with a special mission."
"Who entrusted you with it?"
"A personal representative of Sultan Sayyid ibn-Fahad, may Allah bless..."
"What mission have you been given?"
"I handle the legalization of embryos from the embryo farms," Shufrir said, his face turning from grey to white. His lips trembled. Anger let out an inarticulate cry.
"What are embryo farms?" Fialkovskaya continued.
"Th-they're... places... they're farms... they're places..."
"Give him some water," Luther ordered. The doctor brought a bottle to Shufrir's lips, and he greedily took several gulps. Maria repeated the question.
"They are a kind of farm," Shufrir whispered hoarsely, "where embryos are grown in Mitra-Cubes specifically for recombination. They are sent to perinatal centers, and I... people like me... handle their legalization."
"What is legalization?"
"Processing documents so the embryos appear to be abandoned or orphaned."
"Why do you grow embryos on farms?"
"But, for Allah's sake, it's obvious! There are too few genetic freaks to meet the Metropolis's and the colonies' needs for beings of all classes."
"You beast!.." hissed Luther's deputy, Enyas Erlikaya, another Bellatores in their group.
"Where does the material for growing the embryos on the farms come from?" Fialkovskaya asked impassively; she had already experienced her own horror and disgust when she first learned of this. So long ago...
"It is collected from mothers and fathers who are listed, um... as involuntary donors."
"How does that work?"
"Well, for example, when you visit a clinic belonging to the 'MT Asclepius' system, say, to have your appendix removed, you don't notice a special instrument extracting material from you, which is then sent to the farms."
"Why don't the clinic doctors pay attention to this?"
"I don't know," Shufrir replied, then repeated fearfully: "I really don't know! We are only given access to what pertains to our immediate duties."
"How many embryos from the farms have passed through your center?"
"I c-can't say for sure, I don't remember..."
"Do you know that this violates the Convention?"
"Y-y-yes," Shufrir stammered.
"Then why do you do it?"
"Well, you know... the money."
"Oh, God," Anger whispered; Maria suddenly noticed his cheeks were wet with tears.
"And I can't refuse," the former center head added hastily. "The ruling family oversees the embryo farms, and if I refused, they would kill me and all my relatives."
"Repeat. The Al-Jailim clan, which rules the Sultanate, runs illegal embryo farms and supplies embryos to the MT Corporation for the production of beings?"
"Yes, that is the truth," Shufrir said, slumping weakly down in his chair.
"Administer the medication," Luther ordered. "He mustn't die too soon."
***
"I didn't want to kill him," Maria murmured, resting her head on Luther's shoulder. He put his arm around her and pulled her closer.
"Sometimes it's necessary," he said. "A group can only have one leader, whose decisions are unquestioningly obeyed by everyone else. Anyone who tries to sow discord could be an MT spy."
"I know, but... I didn't think it would have to happen so soon..."
Luther kissed her forehead, and Maria smiled weakly.
"I didn't want you to live this kind of life."
"I had no choice. After what we did. Sooner or later, the epsilons would have gotten to me."
Papa stroked her hair.
"This isn't what I want," he said gently.
"Me neither, you know," Maria replied with a slight laugh. "What are we going to do?"
"We'll split up. You'll take the archive and lead part of the group to Taulan. It's the capital of the Sultanate's colonies on Azrat."
Fialkovskaya frowned. She didn't like it, though she understood the reasoning. It increased their chances of escape.
"May I ask where you're going?"
"Somewhere else. I need to deliver the hostages to the patron. I'll contact you when I'm done."
"I don't like this Aviles very much," Maria said after a pause. "He seems too much like an undercover agent."
"I've checked him out," Luther grumbled. "The guy is unusual, but he has ambition and some interesting ideas."
"I'd like to question him with truth serum," Maria hissed. Hector Aviles, whom she had met once, struck her as arrogant, cunning, and unscrupulous. It was surprising that he had ended up in the underground.
"I'd love to see that," Luther smirked. "You handled Shufrir brilliantly."
A discreet cough came from the darkness. Fialkovskaya moved away from Luther.
"Anger wants to speak with you," Isio Toro reported. "With both of you."
Maria and Luther exchanged surprised glances. After Shufrir's interrogation, Anger had seemed to go into a trance. He stared at his former boss with a vacant look, and Maria had seriously begun to fear that Philippe might lose his mind.
"Alright," Luther said after a brief pause. "Take him away from the others, and we'll talk to the man of science."
Fialkovskaya felt uneasy in the abandoned mines. They reminded her of a tomb, and even the smell of food couldn't overcome that feeling. All three groups huddled together in the center of the tunnel, hastily eating their rations. Magrinha had scheduled the departure for the morning. Two jets were supposed to pick them up and take them to cargo stations several hundred kilometers from Al-Haiyan. Maria was taking the case of embryos and the archive; Papa was taking the prisoners and a copy of the archive.
Toro led the former head of the genetic engineering lab to a side branch off the main tunnel, hung a fly-light above his head, and stood guard to ensure the prisoner's conversation wasn't disturbed.
"Is it true?" Anger asked, as soon as he saw Fialkovskaya and Luther. "What Shufrir said about the... the embryo farms..." His cheek twitched. "And the rest – is it all true?"
"We administered neuroveritine," said Luther. "You saw it yourself. He couldn't lie, no matter how much he probably wanted to."
Anger lowered his head and swallowed. His eyelids were still red.
"If it's true," he muttered hoarsely, "if it's all true, then all these years... centuries..." His voice trembled. "What have we been doing all this time!" He covered his face with his hands. "What have I been doing! For years! My God!"
"Philippe, you didn't know," Maria said gently.
"I thought I was helping them!" Anger cried out fiercely; Isio stirred slightly in the darkness. "I thought that, finally, science was truly changing lives for the better! For those who never had a chance before! I... I believed..."
"You couldn't have known," Fialkovskaya repeated, beginning to suspect where this was going. It wasn't the first time she'd seen the effect the truth had on people. "The Corporation simply used you, your faith, and your knowledge. You, me, even Shufrir – we are all just tools for MT, nothing more."
Anger lowered his hands, took a deep breath, wiped his face on his sleeve, then stared at Luther and declared:
"I want to join you."
"Are you sure, Professor?" Papa asked. "This is hardly the life you're accustomed to."
"I see that," Philippe said grimly. "But I don't want to stay... I can't! I have to do something to make it right! My God," he whispered, studying Luther, "you're a being too! Perhaps you're one of those I maimed, thinking I was healing them!"
Magrinha smiled with satisfaction and squeezed Fialkovskaya's hand. He hadn't expected such a prize – the head of a genetic engineering lab, willing to cooperate fully and voluntarily. A man who knew almost everything about corrective genetic technologies – and what Philippe didn't know about the love of his life could fit on the tip of a fingernail.
"We will consider your decision," said Luther. "As you understand, you cannot yet count on our complete trust."
"Of course not," Anger replied bitterly. "I'm sure you want to kill me."
"Not at all!" Magrinha objected. "Not at all, my dear Professor. On the contrary, I will do everything to ensure you reach our destination safe and sound!"
[1] A system of equipment that allows opening a passage into a stream-tunnel directly from the train. Unlike stream-gates, Arches can hold the entrance to the tunnels open for a longer period of time.
THE ENDTo be continued...
The first chapter of Volume 2, "The New Race," will be released on May 25th! Stay tuned for updates!
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