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Poseidon's Wake

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‘You’ll have to test all of us,’ Goma said.

Eunice gave a snort of derision. ‘I fully intend to.’

A chime sounded hollowly throughout the chamber and the adjoining volumes. It repeated twice more, with an interval between each chime, and then there was silence. Goma looked around, wondering if it might be some kind of alarm. They had heard nothing like it since their arrival.

‘What’s that?’

‘The doorbell,’ Eunice told her. ‘Atria, Mimosa and Keid, back from their repair work. I told you they must be nearby. They’re waiting at the main lock. I’ll need to speak to them, explain the situation. They can wait outside a little longer if they need to.’ Then she handed the sponge and bucket to Ru. ‘We’re going to need more water. I’ll show you where to refill the bucket, and then you can take care of it when I’m not in the room.’

‘Where are you going?’ Goma asked.

‘Not far. I just want to be sure about these blood samples, and there are some more involved tests I can only run in the upper levels.’ Eunice closed the toolkit and rose to her feet. She went first to the door and punched her fist against a control. ‘Atria — can you hear me? You must wait outside. It isn’t safe for you to come back inside just yet.’ Then she stepped away from the door and gestured to Ru. ‘This way. Goma — keep an eye on Sadalmelik. Talk to him. Reassure him.’

‘I will.’

Eunice walked with Ru across the stepped platforms of the floor. They had not gone more than a dozen paces when Eunice discarded any pretence that this was about fetching water. She locked one arm around Ru’s neck, applying enough pressure to force out a yelp of surprise and pain, and used the other to twist back hard on Ru’s own arm, as if she meant to yank it out of its socket.

‘Goma,’ Eunice said, turning back and raising her voice, ‘do nothing and say nothing. I may only be human these days, but I’m more than capable of hurting Ru.’

Goma jumped to her feet, kicking over the medical kit in her surprise. ‘What are you doing?’

Ru screamed. She was barely ten metres away, but it might as well have been kilometres for all the difference Goma could make. She shuddered to think of the force Eunice was applying, the nasty biomechanics of bone and muscle and nerve, the pain she was likely inflicting.

‘I told you not to speak.’

They were still walking, ascending the raised sections. Finally they reached one of the doors leading into the secondary chambers. It was not one of those through which Eldasich and Achernar had already passed, but rather a smaller door that would have been a squeeze for anything but a juvenile elephant. At the threshold, Eunice gave Ru a violent shove and then stepped smartly back from the door. Ru fell inside and the door sealed before she had a chance to spring back through the gap. Eunice touched the panel next to the door and Goma heard the sound of heavy locking mechanisms moving into place.

‘What are you doing?’

Eunice turned back to address Goma. They were on the same level now, eye to eye. She was unfazed — no sweat or other sign of exertion showing on her face.

‘Ru has an elevated viral load. She’s carrying something, and my guess is we’re looking at the consequences.’

‘Why did you lie?’

‘Because I had to. Because she still trusted me enough to walk away from Sadalmelik. Understand that I could easily have killed her, Goma, with the things in this room — the things in that medical kit. I’ve chosen to quarantine her instead.’

‘Let her go!’

‘She’s a weapon, Goma. Whatever’s in her blood acts so quickly it can’t be anything but an engineered zoonotic virus.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I mean it’s something put there deliberately, designed to take down Tantors. Why else would she be asymptomatic? Extreme measures were necessary. Even more extreme measures might be required.’

‘You’re wrong.’

Eunice walked back to Sadalmelik, dipped down to offer him a reassuring hand. Carefully she released the harness securing the speaking plate to his forehead and eased the whole assembly away. Goma guessed that it must have been more comfortable that way, and that Eunice had decided that he was now too weak to generate language.

‘How long have you known her?’

‘Half my life. This isn’t what you think.’

‘People can keep the strangest secrets from each other, Goma. Doctors make the best murderers. Someone who truly hates what the Tantors are — what they stand for — what would stop someone like that becoming a scientist? Being drawn to the thing they most despise?’

‘You don’t know her.’

‘I can see the evidence.’

‘Let me speak to the others. I have to tell them what you’ve done.’

‘Of course. Make it clear to them how far I’m prepared to go.’

‘And how far is that, exactly?’

‘If I feel you are a threat to the Tantors, I will kill you all. Do you think you understand me well enough to be sure that’s an idle threat?’

‘I don’t think I understand you at all.’

Goma reached the door leading back into the sloping corridor. She touched the panel and it opened without any intervention from Eunice. Vasin was standing on the other side, looking back at her with something of the horror she must have immediately seen in Goma’s face.

‘What’s wrong? You look like someone just walked over your grave.’

‘Tell them,’ Eunice said, standing a little way back from the door.

It was all Goma could do to force the words out, never mind hope that they made sense to anyone else. ‘She says Ru is the weapon. That there’s something in her blood, something that kills Tantors. An engineered virus. She’s got Ru locked up, practically broke her arm getting her in there.’

‘Is this true?’ Vasin asked.

‘Why would it not be true, Captain? She’s given you the facts and I’m not disputing them. I have Ru in quarantine now. I may wish to draw another blood sample so my instinct is not to kill her immediately, even though that would probably be the wisest and safest thing. Do you see Sadalmelik over there? He’s dying. That’s inevitable. My medicines can’t help him — the best I can do is ease his passing.’

‘We can help,’ Vasin said. ‘When Saturnin gets back—’

The doorbell sounded again — the three chimes.

Eunice hammered a control. ‘Wait! Didn’t I say we had a problem here?’

The three chimes came again, then repeated in groups of three, so close that they nearly blended into each other. This was no longer a request to enter, Goma sensed, but an urgent demand.

‘Can’t you speak to them?’ Karayan asked.

‘It’s only one-way communication from here. For two-way, I have to be upstairs. It’s just the way I wired the place.’

‘It might be to do with Saturnin,’ Loring said. ‘Maybe he’s ready to come back inside.’

Goma did not think half an hour had passed yet, but perhaps the doctor had been swifter than expected.

‘Is Ru safe where you’ve left her?’ Goma asked.

‘For the moment. Without me you won’t get that door open in a hurry, so don’t think of attempting a forced takeover.’

‘I’m not. But if you harm a hair on her, I’ll personally skin you alive — fearless space explorer or not, you still bleed.’

‘Nice to know the ties of blood are that strong.’

‘Oh, they’re strong — but I also know something you don’t. Ru is innocent. She didn’t do this.’

‘Her blood says otherwise.’

‘Then your analysis is screwed up, or she’s carrying that virus unknowingly.’

‘And how might that have happened, exactly?’

‘I don’t know — maybe if we all calm down and stop talking about takeovers and force we might get somewhere. We’re on the same fucking side, Eunice. Against stupidity. So let’s start acting that way, shall we?’

The chimes sounded again.

‘Damn them!’

‘It sounds as if they really, really want to come inside,’ Goma said. ‘Maybe they have an emergency of their own — have you considered that? Maybe you should speak to them. Meanwhile, we might have medicines that can help the Tantors — but only if we all start cooperating again.’

‘She speaks sense,’ Karayan said. ‘And I will add this — I may not know Ru well, but I do not believe she set out to hurt those animals.’

Goma looked at him with something between suspicion and gratitude. He was the last person she would have counted on for support, and yet it appeared to be given with all sincerity.

‘I’d have thought you’d be quite happy to see Ru blamed for the virus.’

‘Because it keeps the blame from falling on the Second Chance delegation?’

‘Exactly.’

‘The Tantors may have been a development we viewed with unease, Goma, but that does not mean we endorse their cold-blooded murder any more than Ru would. This is something else. It is not our doing, and I doubt very much that it is hers.’

‘I need to talk to Atria,’ Eunice said. ‘Remember what I said about that door. You can follow me.’

‘I could remain here?’ Loring said. ‘Keep offering comfort to Sadalmelik.’

‘You might all be carrying the virus by now.’

‘Ru’s obviously the primary carrier,’ Goma said. ‘Anyway, the damage is done — let Aiyana do what ve can. We can’t just leave Sadalmelik on his own.’

Eunice looked at Loring for long seconds, performing some private assessment of ver suitability. ‘Fine,’ she said brusquely. ‘We’ll be as quick as we can. If anything changes, use that red button by the door to speak to me.’