CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Rylan stared at his brother in shock.
“Jonathan? What’s going on? Is the mission over?”
Jonathan was already turning away. “No, the real mission’s just starting,” he said over his shoulder.
Rylan and Jaime looked at each other.
“Uh…” Jaime said. “So I guess we follow him?”
“I have no fucking clue,” Rylan said, with utter honesty, and went after his brother.
Jaime was right behind him.
The main cargo bay of The Wayward Prince was designed to hold a lot of things of all shapes and sizes. Right now, it was filled with people.
There were military guards stationed near all the doors and on the stairs to the upper level, in combat helmets and with rifles in their hands. The crew was sitting, clustered together on some metal crates, looking very ill at ease. Rylan was relieved to see they weren’t in handcuffs. Standing near them were two Commonwealth agents he recognized: Abrams and Digby. The smaller and more annoying of the two, Digby, sneered at Rylan.
“Heard they locked you in your room without supper.”
Rylan ignored him.
His brother was talking into a handheld comm. “Location is secure,” Jonathan said. “Wait for my signal before sending them in.” He looked up with some annoyance when Rylan came up to him.
“What is it, Brian?”
“Call me Rylan. What’s happened?” he demanded. “Did you catch the buyers?”
“There are no buyers,” Jonathan said. “There’s only us.”
His voice rose. “Jonathan, you need to stop with this cryptic bullshit—”
Jonathan raised a hand, and Rylan realized it was to wave off Abrams who had stepped forward protectively. “There are some things you don’t have clearance for” — Rylan started to speak, but Jonathan went on — “but suffice to say this mission isn’t exactly what you signed on for. We weren’t looking to uncover a stolen weapons ring. This was a courier job. We needed a ship, one we could keep out of official channels. A crew with a reputation for smuggling was the perfect cover. Even better because they genuinely thought they were smuggling something.”
“But why me?” He looked around — Jaime beside him, mirroring his confusion, the crew glaring at him. “Why put me here and make me lie?”
“I needed a person on this ship I could trust,” Jonathan said. “I knew you would see this through, no matter what. These people are thieves, but you have honor.” He turned slightly, noticing the crew listening to his every word. “Please let me assure you that you are not in any kind of legal trouble.”
“Then we can go?” Garcia asked sulkily.
Jonathan continued. “You are, however, being detained until our business on this ship is concluded. At which time you will be compensated.”
Garcia perked up a little. “The same money we were supposed to get for selling the goods?”
Jonathan smiled tightly. “Nowhere near that. Think of it as a more of an honorarium for your service to the Commonwealth.” His face turned stern. “And if you want to retain even that, you’ll shut up about what’s happened here.”
Garcia rolled his eyes. “What I want to know, Agent, is what the hell do you have us carrying on my ship?”
“That’s classified,” Jonathan said. He turned to Abrams. “Let’s clear this area and put them somewhere secure for the duration. My brother as well.” They moved away, leaving Rylan to uselessly clench his fists.
Garcia smiled unpleasantly up at Rylan. “Well, Bri, it seems you’re out of the loop, too. What a shame.”
“My fucking name is Rylan,” he hissed.
“Who’s that?” Jaime asked. “Who are those people?”
The cargo bay ramp was open. Rylan could see a meadow outside and, beyond it, a tall forest lit in early morning light. There was also a small unmarked shuttle outside, and coming up the ramp were four uniformed guards, but not in any uniform Rylan was familiar with. They flanked two other people, a man and a woman. They were dressed well — better than Rylan had seen in months — in layers of rich cloth, but it was their air of easy authority that drew the eye. It tickled some memory in him.
“Senators,” Jaime said softly. “That’s who they are. I’ve seen them on news feeds.”
There had been times when Rylan had been stationed at Commonwealth Central Gov, near the chambers where representatives from different systems and planets debated laws, but he didn’t know any of the senators well enough to recognize on sight.
“You’re right,” the doctor said, also nearly whispering. “The woman is Senator Aglukark and the man Senator Cavendish.” The others looked at her. “Does no one pay attention to the people who are governing us?”
“Politics,” Garcia sighed. “Somehow now we’re up to our hips in it. Rylan, what is this?”
Rylan shook his head. Whatever was going on, his brother wasn’t happy.
“Please,” Jonathan said, hurrying up to them, “sir, madam, this area hasn’t been cleared yet.”
Cavendish, who was hearty and white-haired, waved off his concern. “It looks like you have things well in hand, Gray. Besides, it was getting cramped waiting on that shuttle.”
Jonathan looked pained, but was trying to conceal it. “We were trying to avoid you having any contact with the civilians, sir.”
Senator Aglukark raised a sharp eyebrow as she surveyed the crew of the Prince. Her straight black hair and high cheekbones added to her air of severity. “I doubt anyone would believe them if they did talk.”
“Still, the fewer people involved, the better,” Jonathan said.
“Of course you’re right, Gray,” Cavendish said. He surveyed the hold. “In fact, do we really need all these soldiers milling about?”
“Sir?”
“My private bodyguards are more than capable. I trust them with my life, obviously. Why don’t we clear out the rest, keep everything to a minimum?”
Jonathan looked to the other senator. She shrugged impatiently. “It’s not as if we’re expecting a firefight,” she said. “Are we?”
“Of course not,” Jonathan agreed, but Rylan could tell he was uneasy. He waved to the soldiers while Cavendish strolled towards Rylan and Jaime.
“So you’re the younger Gray,” Cavendish said jovially. “The man on the inside.”
“I suppose so, sir,” Rylan said uncertainly.
He looked at Jaime. “And this is the one you mentioned in your last update,” he said over his shoulder to Jonathan. “The stray wizard?”
Jaime bit his lip, no doubt stifling the impulse to correct the senator. Jonathan hurried back over.
“Jaime Bashir, sir,” Jonathan said. “He was part of the MMI training program, until the unfortunate incident on Luma.”
“The murders,” Jaime said sharply.
Jonathan looked at him with sympathy. “Yes,” he said to Jaime. “The Purists are claiming responsibility for that. I am sorry we didn’t do a better job of protecting your classmates.”
“I didn’t tell you who Jaime was,” Rylan said. It was important that Jaime knew that. “I never would have.”
Jonathan gave him a familiar exasperated frown. “Honestly. I’m in intelligence gathering. His identity wasn’t difficult to figure out.”
Jaime put a hand on Rylan’s arm, which stopped him from arguing further with his brother. It also caused one of Jonathan’s eyebrows to rise as he noted the gesture.
“But this is a bit of luck, isn’t it?” Cavendish said. “We need a wizard for this, after all.”
“Senator,” Jonathan said, genuinely surprised, “Agent Tranh is one of our most experienced MMIs. She will be more than capable—”
“Has she been fully briefed?”
“No, sir, not yet.”
“As you say, we want to keep this as quiet as possible. Unofficial channels, right?”
“Yes, but this young man is still in training.”
“All the more reason to use him. Afterwards he’s just some kid with a crazy story no one will believe.” He drew himself up, losing a lot of the geniality. “You know very well how important secrecy is. The only people I want in that room are myself, Senator Aglukark—” Rylan saw the woman flinch at the mention of her name, and he realized she wasn’t being haughty. She was scared. Cavendish kept talking in a stern voice that brooked no argument. “I know you’ve been the point man on this, and you seem like someone who knows how to play along, so you can see it through.” He pointed to Jaime. “And we’ll need him. My bodyguards can keep watch outside the door.”
“Sir,” Jonathan said. “This is not what we discussed—”
“It’s how it’s going to be, Gray. There are many levels above you. Information you are not privy to. You know how much is riding on this.”
“No,” Rylan said abruptly. “Jaime’s not going anywhere.”
Jonathan glared. “Brian, stay quiet. That’s an order.”
“I don’t give a fuck. Leave Jaime alone.”
“You’d disobey an order? Again?”
Jonathan drew himself up to stare down his brother, but Rylan wasn’t about to be cowed, not because of rank nor family. He was beyond orders on this.
Out of the corner of his eye he could see Cavendish make a movement to his guards. Agents Digby and Abrams shifted, too, clearly waiting for an order from Jonathan. Rylan was sure his brother was going to order him dragged out, but he wasn’t going to make it easy.
“Please!”
Mags stood up. She was wringing her hands and wearing an expression Rylan had never seen on her face: fear.
“I’m just the cook. I don’t know anything about smuggling, really. They don’t tell me anything. I don’t want any trouble, please believe me.”
Rylan wanted to tell Mags that whatever she was playing at, it was hopeless. Jonathan had files on all of the crew — much of the information supplied by Rylan himself, he was ashamed to realize.
But Jonathan shook himself, then turned to her with the air of polite impatience he reserved for most civilians. “Ma’am, I assure you this will all be over soon, and you can go on your way.” He gestured at Abrams and Digby. “While we conduct our business these agents here will stay with you and make sure you’re safe. Perhaps in the galley? That’s where you’d likely feel most comfortable, being the cook.” He looked at Abrams. “Make sure they’re treated with every courtesy.”
The dark-haired agent nodded. “Understood, sir.”
Digby sneered as he gestured to the crew. “Let’s go, folks. Show’s over.”
The captain said nothing, but he gave Jonathan a hard look. The others filed out, Mags actually sniffling.
Senator Aglukark twitched impatiently. “Are we getting on with this?”
“In just a moment,” Jonathan said. “I need a moment to brief Mr. Bashir.”
“Whatever it is,” Jaime said, crossing his arms, “I’m not doing it.”
Cavendish went over to talk to his guards. Jonathan noticed it, too, and his mouth tightened. He stepped closer to Jaime and Rylan. “You don’t understand what’s going on here,” he said in a low voice.
“Sure I do,” Jaime said. “Obviously, you’ve got some kind of incredibly nasty piece of tech in there. Like real olden-days stuff, pre-Singularity. And you need someone like me to examine it because you’re afraid to get it near a Commonwealth computer.”
Rylan looked at Jaime, impressed. He’d been feeling lost by all of the turns, but what Jaime said made sense.
Jonathan nodded to him. “You’re not entirely wrong, but what you’ve been carrying onboard this ship — it’s not pre-Singularity, it is Singularity.”
Rylan frowned uneasily. “You stole something from the Singularity?”
“No,” Jonathan said, his voice heavy. “They sent it to us.”
* * *
Jaime tried not to shiver as the words of Rylan’s brother sunk in. Jonathan glanced around, but the two senators were talking — arguing really — in low voices near the cargo bay entrance, the guards standing loosely around them. The crew had been taken further inside the ship. It was just them.
“For decades now,” Jonathan said. “There’s been nothing from the Singularity. Just automated warning beacons in the border zone if a ship or a probe strays too close to their territory. We know they’re still there, though, because long range scans show a great deal of activity, but their tech is so beyond us that we can’t tell what it is. Their silence was all we had to go on.”
“So what changed?” Rylan asked.
His brother’s face was full of worry. “Last year we received several messages. It took us a while to crack the code on them, but they all seemed to be saying the same thing. The Singularity wants to talk.”
All of Jaime’s life, the Singularity had been the monsters lurking on the other side of the galaxy. While the scars of what they had done were everywhere — in the memorials and the empty cities and the destroyed tech — they’d never seemed quite real.
“But you can’t,” Rylan said almost sputtering. “We don’t just — talk to the Singularity. We fight them.”
“We never fought them, not really. We survived them. Barely. The only reason we remnants of humanity are here at all is because the Singularity left us alone. I know you like the heroic stories, Brian, but did you really read the history books? If the Singularity were to attack again, they would wipe us out.”
“So what have we been doing for a hundred and fifty years?” Rylan demanded. “The Commonwealth, with our military and fucking spies.”
“Keeping us alive,” Jonathan growled back, “and trying to stop people from sliding back into the Dark Age — or worse. Think. The Singularity has the old fleets of ships, all those storied weapons humanity used to be so good at making. For all we know, they’ve been making more this whole time. If they’re offering any kind of peace, of course we have to listen.”
“Is that what it is?” Jaime asked. “Peace?”
They both looked at Jaime like they’d forgotten he was there. Jonathan took a step back from his brother and rubbed tiredly at his eyes.
“I don’t know. No one does. A capsule containing what is supposed to be their envoy was sent to a location in the border zone. Obviously until we know whether it’s peace or a declaration of war, or even some kind of trade negotiation, we don’t want word getting out and causing a panic. The senators are here to make first contact.”
“You mean I am,” Jaime said. He was able to keep his voice from shaking, but just barely. “I’m supposed to let this thing in my head.”
“It’s a translation job only,” Jonathan said, his blue eyes steady. “Just relaying everyone’s words, that’s all. This is what you’ve been trained to do, Jaime. I shouldn’t have to remind you of your loyalty to the Commonwealth.”
Jaime’s mouth dropped open in disbelief. “Loyalty? You people stole me from my family when I was ten years old!”
Jonathan frowned. “That’s… not how it works. Parents will place children with MMI abilities in Commonwealth facilities if they believe they’re in danger from the community. It’s voluntary.”
Jaime shook his head. “No. I know what happened.” He jerked away when Rylan tried to touch his shoulder.
Jonathan glanced back at the senators and took a breath. “If you do this, I’ll give you everything we have on you. Your family’s files, all of it.”
Jaime hesitated. He had a data chip, but the only real information of value on it was the coordinates to his far-flung home world. “What about the ship’s crew? All that stuff you said about them not being in any trouble, is that true?”
“If we manage to make it through this, then yes. They can go on their way.”
Jaime wanted to ask for reassurances and promises, but he knew there was only so much Jonathan could give. He wanted more than anything to run away from all this. But if he’d been hearing scary stories about the Singularity his whole life, he’d also heard the stories of the people. Old Earth and all its history. The humans who’d gone among the stars. All the lives that had been lost, so many that no one now could even remember their names. They’d been his family, too, and he owed them courage.
“Okay,” he said quietly, then straightened up and spoke in a surer voice. “I’ll do this.” He couldn’t help but look at Rylan, who stared back with a face full of worry.
“One more thing. I need Rylan with me. In that room. He’s—” Jaime put aside everything else and spoke what he knew in his heart. “He’s the only one I trust.”
For a moment Rylan’s face softened, and he looked like he wanted to say so many things, but instead he folded his arms and glared defiantly at his brother.
Jonathan sighed. “Usually I’d make some remark about clearance, but this is on the verge of going completely to hell as it is.” He pointed at Rylan. “You don’t say anything. Don’t interfere. This is diplomacy. It’s not a time for you to go throwing people into walls.”
Despite everything, Jaime smiled. He thought throwing people into walls was one of Rylan’s best qualities.
The door to the specially shielded room off the cargo bay had a lot of locks on it, all of them seeming to turn with ominous clunks Jaime felt in his stomach. The door was shut again behind Jaime, Rylan, Jonathan, and the two senators.
What bothered Jaime most of all was the silence. Once the door was shut, he couldn’t feel the presence of Dub, or anything electronic from outside. It was completely shielded in here, probably initially to stop scanners from detecting anything in the room, but now, Jaime thought queasily, to prevent the thing in the room from getting out.
The room itself wasn’t anything special, small and lit with a single overhead light. In the center of the room was a small metal crate, shielded as well.
Jonathan nodded to his brother, and they went to either side and took the lid off the crate. Inside, surrounded by soft foam padding, was a dull gray cube. It had a seam running horizontally all the way around it.
Jaime swayed slightly. Just for an instant he felt a sensation of vertigo, like he was standing on the edge of something very high up.
“Well?” Senator Aglukark asked. “Do we need a power source for it?”
“No,” Jonathan said. “It’s supposed to contain its own power source.” He carefully touched the cube and even more carefully lifted it. The top half of cube opened along the seam. Inside this other box was a dull crystal, no more than the size of Jaime’s smallest finger.
“That can’t be an AI,” Senator Cavendish said. “It’s a rock.”
Jonathan and the senators looked at each other, but Rylan was watching Jaime.
“Jaime?”
Jaime’s back was to the wall, but he could still feel himself teetering on the edge of — something. It was beyond anything he could understand.
The crystal began to glow.
And Jaime tumbled forward into nothingness.