She took a deep breath, and he saw her brain click into action. “I reckon you’ll have about six hours before the sickness makes it impossible to function.”
It didn’t seem very long to discover “the truth.” Why was he so sure that he would find his answers when Venna had spent years hunting and come up with nothing? Maybe it was just a gut feeling, but he’d learned to follow those. Then he realized that wasn’t the case. The feeling wasn’t in his gut, but in his mind—in that part of his mind changed by Meridian, where he could communicate with the other members of the Collective. Could it be some sort of ancestral memory? Or was there something on the planet calling to him, drawing him there. But they had never found any living organisms on Trakis Seven or any sign that there had ever been an indigenous life form. One of their theories had been that an alien space ship could have crash-landed like they had, although they’d found no evidence.
“We’ll land close to the Meridian site,” Venna said, breaking into his thoughts. “But it’s still half an hour beneath the planet’s surface, that’s an hour there and back plus at least an hour for the treatment to take. That leaves you less than four hours.”
“Doesn’t seem long.”
“It will when you’re down there, believe me.”
He did. He could still remember the time he had spent on the planet—it had not been a pleasant occurrence.
“So we go for the Meridian first?”
“No. I suggest you leave that until last—the place messes with your brain but you don’t need much mental capacity to get to the cache.”
“So where do we start?”
“There’s a chamber close to the place where the Trakis Seven crash-landed and luckily quite close to the final cache of Meridian. It’s the center of the radiation—though it’s not really radiation—more like some sort of poison. I reckon that’s your best bet. I’ve been there a couple of times. It’s a weird place, but there’s something… I don’t know.”
“You still think it’s some sort of alien?”
It was something they had discussed many times, but Venna refused to commit to a conclusion that wasn’t firmly based in scientific fact.
“Yes.”
He’d been gazing at the monitor, but at her answer, he whirled around to face her. “Well, that’s a change.”
“I can’t see what else it could be. I’m hoping you’ll find some proof where I’ve failed. Go to the chamber, open your mind, and see what happens.”
He nodded. His comm unit flashed, and he reached across and flipped the switch.
“We’re done,” Tannis said. “Just clearing up, so you can come out now if you want to. We’re on the bridge.”
“Come on,” he said to Venna. “The place is ours. Let’s get on with this.” A sense of deep excitement rose inside him. What would he find? The truth?
…
The ship was built like El Cazador but on a smaller scale, and once out of the shuttle they headed up the ramp to the upper level. She was obviously new, still gleaming, with the smell of fresh clean air. They found the bridge, and he paused in the doorway. His gaze went straight to Tannis. She stood to one side, talking to Skylar. She appeared unharmed and some of the tension inside him eased.
It was obvious a fight had gone on in here. Scorch marks from laser blasts scarred the walls, and a couple of bodies lay on the floor.
Jon pushed past him from behind, entered the bridge, and picked up the nearest body, tossing it over his shoulder with ease. He grinned at Callum as he passed, carrying the dead crewmember—presumably they were just dumping the bodies out of the airlock.
The last body lay on the floor, eyes staring. There was no obvious cause of death, but when Callum looked closer, he could see the puncture wounds in the throat. He glanced up to where Rico paced the deck at the far side of the bridge. As though sensing his gaze, he turned Callum’s way. He appeared totally wired—his eyes glowing crimson, blood staining his lips, and a shiver of primordial fear skittered down Callum’s spine.
“I’d stay away from him for a while if I were you.” Tannis came up beside him.
“That was my plan. Are the crew all dead?”
“Yeah. We did give them the chance to surrender.”
“How much of a chance?”
“Not much. It may have escaped your notice, but Rico isn’t too fond of the Church.”
“It hadn’t escaped me.”
“He was sort of blinded by the light flashing off the crosses around their necks.” She shrugged. “They chose to do this, so they must be willing to take the consequences.”
“If you live by the sword, you should expect to die by it.”
“Something like that. And look on the bright side—at least they died believing they were going to heaven. But the good news is none of the systems have been damaged—she’s fully functional and ready to go as soon as we’ve cleaned up.”
Jon came in and picked up the last body, carted it out like so much rubbish.
Tannis glanced at him. “This is really bothering you, isn’t it?”