Fifteen
"Overlord."
Khalin Nome snapped from the depths of unpleasant
thoughts.
"Boris?"
"Alliance Communications requests Bolphan Flight
Control to authorize approach and docking of Alliance craft,
identification..."
Boris rattled off a sequence of numbers.
"Agent Lee Wokan of Colonial Investigation requests
an immediate audience upon arrival," the machine concluded.
"Alliance CI?" Khalin queried nervously. "For me?"
"Yes, my Lord."
Khalin brought himself fully alert and looked about
his office, his inner sanctum of sanctums. "Grant him audience. Bring
him here, but I want a lid on this. Do not inform security."
He heard his own words played back to him for
verification. "Confirmed," he murmured, disturbed by the edge of anxiety
he heard in his own tone of voice, and then he turned his focus inward,
monitoring the activity of the city for evidence of the disturbance the
appearance of an Alliance CI agent might leave in his wake.
Boris announced Lee Wokan's arrival. Lee Wokan stepped through the security
interlock, a lean man wearing an Alliance uniform, blue trimmed in gold.
He had short hair cut flat across the top and dark eyes. His thin lips
did not smile. He bowed curtly. "My Lord..."
Khalin gestured magnanimously toward one of several
seats facing his command desk. Lee ignored the invitation. "Why does
Bolphan stand by so close to danger?” Lee said gently. “The rest of the
colony has routed."
"Incorrect information," Khalin spat with equal
reserve. "The colony stands by as well, albeit at a discrete distance.
Bolphan elected to remain behind to observe current events. We have an
invested interest in Covonia, as you can well imagine. It has been our
home for three hundred years.”
"What do you know of the alien craft in formation
near your sun?"
"Nothing is known of the alien
presence," Khalin said.
"Has the colony had any contact with the inhabitants
of the disabled alien vessel on Covonia?"
Khalin chuckled gravely. "It has taken no notice of
us. It will take no notice of you, but you would do well to keep
your distance."
"Have you left Covonian forces behind anywhere in the
system? For closer observation, perhaps."
Khalin paused before answering. Lee would have
already interrogated the Bolphan MI web for the answers he sought. He
knew the facts. What he sought were reasons for decisions already
rendered. Jeremy’s mission could be ignored for the moment.
"We have not."
"Hive forces are conducting a search near Immamat,"
Lee said. "Do you know what they search for?"
"I have no knowledge of Hive operations," he said gently, a
technically correct response.
Lee drew several steps closer and folded his arms
against his chest. "I have accessed Bolphan city records and matched a
head count at route against your last census, Khalin. What has happened
to Myla Rhodes?"
"Stranded on Covonia," Khalin said bluntly.
"Then you do have forces on Covonia."
"We have a child on Covonia, twelve standard years of
age. I would not define her as ‘forces’. Have I erred?"
"Perhaps the object of Hive searches near Immamat?"
Lee ventured.
Khalin sighed. "Perhaps.
I cannot speak for the Hive."
"And Jeremy Kael?" Lee said. "He is missing as
well."
"Send out to retrieve the girl should her transport
manage to evade the Hive."
"Has he succeeded, do you think?"
Khalin found it difficult to speak through the mire
of his growing misery. He shook his head wearily. "It is not likely."
"Your records show you have lost radio contact with
the boy."
"Captured by Hive forces, in all probability," Khalin
said. "His mission was as voluntary as it was hopeless."
Lee finally took a seat, an ordinary-looking man, but
possibly an avatar connected to his own body in one of the nearby Alliance
craft. Lee would undoubtedly be equipped with memory augmentation in any
case. Every detail of Alliance history for the past millennia would be
known to him.
"I thought a condition of your exile from the core worlds
was to refrain from taking political office."
"I do not occupy political office,"
Khalin said smoothly. "I am an public
servant appointed by the Ruling Council which is in turn elected by
the citizens of Covonia."
"Ah, I see." Lee nodded his apparent satisfaction.
Khalin found him infuriatingly condescending. "So, Bolphan stands alone
at the edge of this system in defense of a single child. Did the Council
allow this?"
"The Council wants to know what's happening on
Covonia," Khalin said, mocking infinite patience. "The child is
irrelevant. We left by standard route procedures, but we are not under
Hive or alien attack."
"So we've noticed."
A moment of clumsy silence passed, giving Khalin the
opportunity to voice a question of his own. "What does the Alliance know
of the alien presence?"
Lee visibly resisted the temptation to share his
concern. "We know it's a first in human history. Our standoffish
visitors are far ahead of humanity technologically speaking, but we would
guess they have minds far closer to our own in evolutionary terms than the
stargods, which are by definition forms of life hundreds of millions of
years beyond our own modest level of development. Unfortunately, the
visitors don't seem to be interested in commerce with homo sapiens."
"What are they waiting for?"
Lee seemed nervously amused by the question. Khalin
realized that it spoke of his own growing anxiety as well. "You tell us.
We have intercepted Hive transmissions that indicate they found nothing of
interest aboard the alien craft that was being pursued. Nothing alive.
All systems self-destructed upon impact. There is clear evidence,
however, that something or someone escaped the craft just before landing.
It would be my guess that the aliens remain in pursuit. Perhaps it
is you who shouldn't get in the way."
"We're not in the way,"
Khalin said dryly. "If they attack, they could attack anywhere
within the Alliance sphere of influence, in which case you will protect
us. It was your guarantee when Dalikor was
betrayed and the Alliance formed."
Lee studied him for a casual moment. "You are a
study in contrast, Khalin. You endanger a city of fifty thousand to look
for a stranded child, but you supported a regime that would have allowed
the death of ninety-five percent of the human race."
"I would have lived to see the population of the
human race replenished," Khalin said. "I would have lived to see humanity
flourish free of the Hive and those who enforce its mindless oppression.
What do we have in its stead? We live in the shadow of terror. How many
have died since the war ended with Dalikor’s assassination and
capitulation to an insane machine intelligence?"
Lee Wokan rose to his feet, but paused before
leaving. "Dalikor would not have relinquished rule over what was left of
humanity. He was more terrifying than the Hive." He then glanced back
with anger flashing in his dark eyes. "Remember that your own people
destroyed that abomination."
Khalin waited until the man had cycled through the
airlock and left the vicinity of the command center. "Dalikor knew his
limitations," he murmured to the silence. "He would have served, and he
would have stepped down when the job was done. You fool, I knew the man.
He was like a son to me."
