Reclamation

"The communications consoles will be my area." She cleared the optical matter above the comm boards with deft hands. "We can flood the lab's interior lines with data."

Uary was vaguely aware that he was now fighting the first battle with the Aunorante Sangh that had taken place since the Ancestors had taken flight, and nobody outside the lab even knew it was happening. They checked, changed, restarted, and rerouted. It burned, closed, crashed, and jammed. The lab was well stocked with spare parts and every system had backups to its backups. Uary did not like emergencies. They were half a dozen and the artifact was only one and it didn't know the systems. It would have to tire. It would have to collapse.

Except it didn't. Everywhere they went, it was already there. Its power gripped the entire lab and shut them outside, leaving them standing helplessly in the middle of their equipment.

Its heart rate didn't even flutter. It seemed to expend no energy and all the battle took it no effort. It could keep it up until the ship fell apart, and it was still perfectly calm, perfectly regulated.

Uary wanted to throw his head back and laugh at the absurdities. Of course it was, because the tank was keeping it that way. He'd issued the order himself. Total life-support. The tank would feed Born what it needed to keep itself calm and healthy. As long as it was inside the tank, it could do anything and feel no strain.

"It's reached the comm system," said the Witness. "It is transmitting, and the terminal is responding."

"How!" shouted Basq.

How!? repeated Uary in his own frantic mind. They had physically cut…

The line to Caril. His Beholden had physically cut the comm lines and they had missed his line to Caril. But who would there be to answer it?

"The female artifact," said the Witness as if she read his mind. "The delivery was a ruse. We have to open the doors. We must warn the Captain."

"No!" Uary laid his hands on the life-support commands. "All we have to do is get it out of the tank, Lairdin…"

"Stop!" thundered the Witness.

Uary and his Beholden froze.

"It has the air supply."

Basq got to the Witness's side one step ahead of Uary. The monitor's message had changed.

I HAVE BURNED OUT THE EVACUATION CIRCUIT. ALL THAT IS HOLDING IT CLOSED IS ME. IF I AM FORCED TO LET GO THE ROOM WILL BE IN VACUUM IN LESS THAN FIFTEEN SECONDS.

Uary cursed. "It even knows the time."

"Part of the quarantine measures?" inquired the Witness.

Uary nodded. "A last precaution."

Cierc wiped a huge swath of optical matter away from the wall to reveal a carbonized juncture in the fiber optics. "It's not bluffing."

"Suits!" ordered Basq.

Cierc, closest to the emergency locker, broke the seal and swung the door back. Uary walked calmly but quickly to his side, as he'd been drilled to do all his life. Get in the suit, close the seals, check the…

The suits lay in crumbled heaps on the locker floor. Each helmet seal had been burned through. The carbon stench drifted up from them.

Cierc swallowed. "The locker has an optical matter backing. It must have got through…"

Because I listened to Basq. Because I wanted to have it in my hands a few minutes longer. Because I had a hidden line to Caril…

"Then we die," said Basq.

"WHAT?" cried Cierc.

"We die." Basq stood like a statue of himself. "We cut the power to the tank. We cannot permit its confederates to rescue this thing alive. It knows enough to mount a pitched battle against us, and win. It knows the private technologies. We will lose the Home Ground if it survives."

Uary tried to find the flaw in Basq's reasoning, but there was none. There was no other way. If the artifacts understood too much, the Vitae would lose to them, again.

"I'll do it." Even though the Witness would not survive to transmit this, he felt better saying it to her.

He heard Basq whisper Caril's name and realized he could have his revenge now if he wanted it. Before they died he could tell Basq that his son was alive and working for the Imperialists, and that Caril had been in touch with him ever since he had "vanished." He could do it, now that they were dead and the Witness with them.

Uary looked at Basq and decided it was enough that he knew. Basq could join the Lineage ignorant.

The room shook. It rattled and pitched wildly and a wind rushed through it.

Wind? Uary sat up and dazedly wondered how he had come to be on the floor.

The wind died as abruptly as it started. Lairdin sprawled on the floor. Red liquid smeared around her. And her face was gone.