The Deeps, Twenty-Six Kilometers Below
Lumiara, Survivor’s Refuge
4454.2.24 Interstellar
“What’s the meaning of this?” the chief engineer shouted at the Irkallans standing armed on the deck of the submarine.
“It’s no use yelling,” Janus answered. “We’ll talk once Nikandros is here.”
Janus had no doubt that the exceptionalist architect was aware of the situation. Ryler was standing back, closer to shore than the other cyborgs. Janus knew that any one of them could probably jump from the dock to the submarine, even though they’d pulled the Seraphine away, just as he knew several of his aspirants would shoot them before they landed.
The Chapo and Deep Rider were already gone from port.
Nikandros calmly walked along the pier, the exceptionalists moving out of his way and falling into what looked like a military formation, two ranks deep.
Ryler joined them, joining the second row.
“I thought we talked about this, Janus,” Nikandros said. “We don’t need you to reach the Oracle.”
“I can’t let that happen without assurances.”
“Which I gave you.”
“Not enough,” Janus said. “We’re changing the rules of this voyage. Your people will stay in officer berthing until we arrive.”
“You believe you can keep us there,” Nikandros observed. “What’s this about blowing up the ship?”
“Just that,” Janus said. “We’ve rigged the Seraphine to blow. If you try to leave the officers’ quarters before we reach the Core, I’ll send her to the bottom.”
Nikandros’s eyes flicked around the docks. “You’ve transferred the aspirants to the Seraphine and put your families on the cargo ships. Smart. It’s what I would have done. If I refuse?”
Janus gave the architect an elaborate shrug. “We get to the Core without you.”
“The compartmentalists there won’t hand it over to you.”
“Maybe not. Maybe we’ll make new friends. Are you willing to risk it?”
“I am not,” Nikandros said. “We accept your terms.”
Janus felt a small bit of hope at this small victory. If he could understand what Nikandros wanted and control it, there was a chance they could thread the needle and come out, if not on top, at least the survivors of a prolonged stalemate between the exceptionalists and their old adversaries.
“What’s your plan if he tries to kill you all at once, before you can trigger the bombs?” the captain asked in Janus’s ear, his voice a harsh whisper.
Janus swallowed. The fish creature must have swum silently to the ship and climbed up the side while everyone was watching the exceptionalists. “Dead man’s switch,” Janus said. “If the majority of us die, the bombs go off on their own.”
“Make sure he knows that,” the captain hissed. “I can probably make it back here, but it’s a long way to swim.”
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Janus turned to see the captain striding toward the hatch, fully naked, his clothes bundled in a waterproof bag thrown over his shoulder. He shook his head and activated the comm to the control room. “Seraphine, arriving. Get us back to the docks, and prepare to get Nikandros and his people back aboard. I want this to go smoothly. No mistakes.”
“Yes, sir,” the watch officer said.
Janus looked back at the pier, where Nikandros and his people stood motionless, waiting.
The architect and his people were smarter, faster, and better equipped, but Janus did have some advantages. He knew what it was like to work from a position of weakness, to treasure every small gain, and to act out of the desperation of a man who had everything to lose.
***
The captain had just dried himself and finished putting on his uniform when a knock came at his stateroom door.
“Enter!” he said.
The door opened to reveal Nikandros, although the architect didn’t step in. “I just came to offer you my congratulations,” he said.
The captain looked at the architect, nostrils flaring, but he sensed no violence. “Thank you, but I had nothing to do with it.”
“Are you saying you and Petra didn’t engineer this?”
“We didn’t,” the captain said. “Not for lack of trying. Blew up rather spectacularly in all our faces, wouldn’t you say?”
“I’d say you’re in better standing than we are,” Nikandros said. “Will you be moving out of officer’s berthing?”
“And give up my stateroom? Never!” the captain said, smiling widely.
“Pity,” Nikandros said, stepping back and out of the way as the captain came out and closed his door behind him. “And Captain?”
“Yes, Architect?”
“Don’t interfere when the time comes. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”
“I won’t be anywhere near you, Nikandros,” the captain said with a smirk. He turned and walked toward the control room.
Once he was out of earshot, he added, “I wouldn’t want to get in Invarian’s way.”
***
Janus looked up from the holo tank as the captain stepped onto the bridge.
The officer of the watch looked at the captain to see if he wanted to assume control, but the Apostate waved her away. “I see we’ve started making our way down the trench.”
“Gently,” Janus said. “We thought it was better to wait for you.”
“You’ll be fine,” the captain said quietly. “Still, it’s good you didn’t just dive through the crust to the inner sea. There are animals in the trench and in the cliff faces that can get territorial if we move too quickly, and others that might mistake us for a whale carcass if we dive too steeply.”
“Animals big enough to damage the ship?” Janus asked, surprised.
The captain grinned. “Animals big enough to smash us into the cliffs. Maneuver as you need to, but I’d keep an average of no more than twenty knots and five degrees down. It should take us about three days to transit.”
“Won’t that take us away from our destination?” the pilot asked, frowning at the chart on her screen.
“Assuming you mean the Core facility,” the captain said, glancing at Janus, “there’s enough room in Fuller’s Rent for the convoy to turn around on the second day. Keep at least a hundred meters away from the cliff faces.”
“Aye, captain,” the pilot said.
The Apostate gave Janus a nod and turned to walk away.
“You’re not staying?” Janus asked, again surprised by how relaxed the captain was.
“Heading down to the mess. Thought I might eat with the crew, for once,” the captain said. His eyes gleamed blue. “Don’t worry, Emissary. I’ll find a way to appear in the control room if anything is seriously wrong.” He didn’t wait for Janus’s answer, continuing through DCC to the main ladderwell before disappearing down the stairs.
The officer of the watch gave the order, and the pilot adjusted her speed to twenty knots and five degrees down, a barely perceptible dive once they settled into it. Janus kept waiting for the other boot to kick him in the shins, but the exceptionalists were settled in officer’s berthing, his aspirants were vigilant, and the captain’s jaunty calm indicated there was no immediate threat to their lives.
Have we really pulled this off? Janus wondered.
The captain seemed to understand they weren’t going to the Core facility, at least not directly, but had that been after he glanced at the plot in the holo tank or before? Would Nikandros come to the same conclusion? And if so, would he act?
The exceptionalist architect and his people had nothing to fear from the compartmentalists, not as long as they weren’t going against the dictates of the Consensus—which they hadn’t yet.
It was within their rights to visit the Core facility, even if they happened to be eight combat-rated cyborgs going to a research facility. Had Nikandros intended to coerce the Cult scientists or kill them? Would Janus have stood by? And did Nikandros intend to use his people to replace the dead scientists or frame them?
There were still far too many unknowns, but if their trip to the compartmentalist facility was successful, and there were comp military cyborgs at the Seafall garrison, he could hope to achieve a sort of stalemate that would see… he wasn’t sure what a good outcome might look like, but for now, they needed the compartmentalists’ support.
Here’s hoping they don’t hold grudges, Janus thought.