“And you think this will actually work,” Tarsem said.
“I think it buys us time.” I turned back to the rock where the young Lalan had been a few minutes before, and noticed it wasn’t there anymore. There was a splotch of blood, however. Whether it belonged to the youth or the one who had been killed before it, I didn’t know. “Maybe enough time to save the Conclave from collapsing. And that’s enough for now.”
PART TWO
“Wake up, Hafte,” someone said.
I woke up. It was Vnac Oi. I stared at it for a moment before gathering enough wit to speak.
“Why are you standing in my sleeping chamber?”
“I need you awake,” it said.
“How did you get in?”
Oi gave me a look that said, Really, now.
“Never mind,” I said. I lifted myself off my sleeping pedestal and moved to my wardrobe to get dressed. I don’t usually prefer other people see me without clothing, but it’s for their sake, not mine; Lalans don’t have a taboo against nudity. “Tell me what’s going on, at least.”
“A human ship has been attacked,” Oi said.
“What?” I looked out from my wardrobe at Oi. “Where? And by whom?”
“In our space,” Oi said. “And we don’t know. But it gets worse.”
“How does it possibly get worse?” I slipped a basic robe onto my body and stepped out of the wardrobe. Other accoutrements could wait.
“The humans’ ship is out of control and being dragged in by the gravity of this asteroid,” Oi said. “We have four serti before it hits.”
“That doesn’t leave much time,” I said. There are thirty serti in a sur.
“It gets worse,” Oi said.
“Stop saying that,” I said. I stood in front of Oi, now. “Just tell me what’s going on.”
“There are humans trapped on the ship,” Oi said. “Including the diplomatic mission from Earth.”
* * *
“Here is the Odhiambo,” Loom Ghalfin said, pointing at the image of a tumbling spacecraft on the briefing room monitor. Ghalfin was the director of the Conclave’s ports and facilities. In the briefing room were me, Oi, General Gau, Chancellor Lause, and Regan Byrne. Along the wall of the briefing room stood several of Ghalfin’s subordinates, all of whom looked as if they were lined up to be shot. Well, and if Odhiambo struck the asteroid, it would be the most merciful thing that could be done to them.
“The Odhiambo skipped into Conclave space roughly a hundred ditu ago,” Ghalfin said. Ninety ditu in a serti, so not very long ago at all. “Almost as soon as it entered Conclave space, it reported several explosions and extensive damage.”
“Do we know what caused the explosions?” Gau asked, and nodded toward Oi. “Vnac here told me and Hafte it was an attack.”
“We don’t know what it was,” Ghalfin said. “At entry the Odhiambo was reporting, verbally and by automated monitoring, that all systems were nominal. The next thing we know everything went haywire.”
“Vnac?” Gau said.
“My analysts started looking at data as soon as the damage reports came in, cross-referencing with what we know of the Odhiambo,” Oi said. “The Odhiambo is a lend-lease ship, originally an Ormu freighter. The pattern of damage it reported right after the explosions occurred isn’t consistent with what might happen with a power systems failure. It is consistent with what would happen if the power systems were attacked to cause secondary damage.”
“So an attack,” Gau said.
“Seems likely to me.” Oi motioned to Ghalfin. “Although I will bow to any additional information our colleague here can offer.”
“We’re combing through our own data now to see if anyone or anything else skipped in just before or close to the arrival of the Odhiambo,” Ghalfin said. “We’re back a full sur on the data now and nothing’s pinged.”
Tarsem nodded. “Let’s get back to the current situation.”
“The current situation is that the Odhiambo is heavily damaged and tumbling in Conclave space. The explosions have imparted a small bit of momentum on the ship toward the asteroid, and the asteroid’s native gravity is doing the rest. Left unchecked it will impact in three serti, fifty-five ditu.” The image Ghalfin was showing tracked out and showed the projected path of the Odhiambo toward the Conclave’s headquarters.
“What will the impact damage here?” I asked.