Reclamation

"You do not have days," said Basq. "We need to understand how this artifact functions as soon as possible. Do I have to contact our team leader to reinforce this?"

Uary did nothing for a moment but concentrate on breathing.

"You can do what you want," he said. "I will do what this investigation requires." Uary turned his back on Basq. "Supervisor Lairdin, you will calibrate the tank to capture the preliminary physical map of the artifact."

He could almost feel the heat of Basq's anger against his shoulder blades. He did hear the swish of Basq's robes as the Ambassador strode over to the intercom. Uary did not look at him. His Beholden scrambled around the main holding tank, setting the specifications using the available data on Eric Born. The side tanks pumped refreshed analysis gels back into the main unit. Uary waved the Intership Ambassadors away from the sides of the support capsule. He checked the monitors one more time to make sure the artifact was in a stable condition. Lairdin positioned herself at the capsule's foot and her intern, Cierc, took his place at the head.

Uary shut the power off and snapped the catches on the cover. It swung back and Uary leapt out of the way. Lairdin and Cierc grabbed the handles of the inner structure and swiftly lifted Born and his support tubes out of the capsule and plunged the entire structure into the gel-filled holding tank.

Uary thrust his arms into sterile gloves and then into the gel. Needles had to be inserted in the artifact's skin and veins. He laid monitor pads on its temples, wrists, throat, and chest. He attached feed lines to the tubes already in place to allow for chemical and viral transmission.

When the last needle was in place, Uary lifted his arms away and held them over the artifact, dripping globs of gel into the holding tank.

"Status?" he barked.

Lairdin ran her fingers over the tank's monitor screens. "Sample is stable. Support functions optimal. Feeds clear and ready."

"Bio-technician Uary," called Basq. "Ambassador Ivale wishes to speak with you directly."

Uary stripped off his gloves and dropped them into the cleaner on the side of the holding tank. "Start taking static baseline measurements," he said to Lairdin. Every drop of data would help.

"Ambassador Ivale." Uary positioned himself in front of the screen. The Ambassador stood calmly on the other end of the line, but Uary had the feeling Ivale was not prepared to hear anything he had to say. "I must caution against haste. If we try to understand the system before we understand the structure, we risk damaging the artifact before we've acquired the information that we really need."

"Ordinarily I would agree with you, Bio-technician," said Ivale, "but events are proceeding and we cannot be slow. You are to get what information you can from the artifact regarding the nature and function of its extramechanical abilities. You will use the same criteria in conducting your analysis of the female artifact when it arrives. These are the most pertinent to the Reclamation. We have less than twenty hours before the Second Company lands in the populated segment."

"You hold my name, Ambassador," Uary said. "We'll begin now."

The Ambassador closed the line and Uary forced his attention to his Beholden waiting by the tank. What Ivale didn't know, of course, was that he had just played straight into the Imperialists' hands. It was now a matter of record that Uary had been told to circumvent protocol and put the artifacts at risk.

Now he had his pick of ways to destroy the work of the Ancestors. There was too much that could go wrong with living cells. Too much that shifted and recombined. Too many factors had to be accounted for, no matter how great the capacity of the computer that oversaw the job and ran the projections. There were hints that the Ancestors had worked with living cells and living organisms like Engineers worked with ceramic and steel and with results that were just as steady and predictable. The Vitae were the best genetic engineers the Quarter Galaxy had to offer, but their Ancestors had been better. How they had performed their miracles was beyond Uary. It was beyond anybody. It had been stolen by the Aunorante Sangh. He regarded the artifact's face, immobile behind the oxygen mask.

And I thought I'd be its rescuer. I thought I'd be able to force this artifact, this Aunorante Sangh, to give it all back.

Uary wet his lips as he sat down at his own terminal. Maybe I can still get some of it.

"Normally, by the time we begin investigating a biological system, we return the sample to an active state." Uary reconfigured the board to bring his private notes onto the display.

"No," Basq announced. "Not this one. You've seen the reports. We cannot risk it being able to use its…extramechanical abilities."