Redemption Ark

‘Your proposal?’ she said, with a sniff of disdain.

‘My revised proposal, then. The one that didn’t involve your unilateral surrender.’

‘You’re hardly in a position to be putting proposals to anyone, Clavain. The last time I looked, you only had half a ship left.’

She was right. Remontoire and most of the remaining crew were still alive, but the damage to the ship was acute. It was a minor miracle that the Conjoiner drives had not detonated.

‘By proposal I meant… suggestion. A mutual arrangement, to the benefit of both of us.’

‘Refresh my memory, will you, Clavain?’

He turned to Bax. ‘Antoinette, introduce yourself, will you?’

She came closer to the bed with something of the same trepidation that Clavain had shown. ‘Ilia…’

‘It’s Triumvir Volyova, young lady. At least until we’re better acquainted.’

‘What I meant to say is… I’ve got this ship… this freighter…’

Volyova glared at Clavain. He knew what she meant. She was acutely conscious that she did not have a great deal of time left, and what she did not need was indirection.

‘Bax has a freighter,’ Clavain said urgently. ‘It’s docked with us now. It has limited transatmospheric capability — not the best, but it can cope.’

‘And your point, Clavain?’

‘My point is that it has large pressurised cargo holds. It can take passengers, a great many passengers. Not in anything you’d call luxury, but…’

Volyova gestured for Bax to come closer. ‘How many?’

‘Four thousand, easily. Maybe even five. The thing’s crying out to be used as an ark, Triumvir.’

Clavain nodded. ‘Think of it, Ilia. I know you’ve got an evacuation plan going here. I thought it was a ruse before, but now I’ve seen the evidence. But you haven’t made a dent in the planet’s population.’

‘We’ve done what we could,’ Khouri said, with a trace of defensiveness.

Clavain held up a hand. ‘I know. Given your constraints, you did well to get as many off the surface as you’ve managed to. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do a lot better now. The wolf weapon — the Inhibitor device — has nearly bored its way through to the heart of Delta Pavonis. There simply isn’t time for any other plan. With Storm Bird we’d need only fifty return trips. Maybe fewer, as Antoinette says. Forty, perhaps. She’s right — it’s an ark. And it’s a fast one.’

Volyova let out a sigh as old as time. ‘If only it were that simple, Clavain.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘We aren’t simply moving faceless units off the surface of Resurgam. We’re moving people. Frightened, desperate people.’ The grey goggles tilted a fraction. ‘Aren’t we, Khouri?’

‘She’s right. It’s a mess down there. The administration…’

‘Before, there were just two of you,’ Clavain said. ‘You had to work with the government. But now we have an army, and the means to enforce our will. Don’t we, Scorpio?’

‘We can take Cuvier,’ the pig said. ‘I’ve already looked into it. It’s no worse than taking a single block of Chasm City. Or this ship, for that matter.’

‘You never did take my ship,’ Volyova reminded him. ‘So don’t overestimate your capabilities.’ She turned her attention to Clavain and her voice became sharper, more probing than it had been upon his arrival. ‘Would you seriously consider a forced takeover?’

‘If that’s the only way to get those people off the planet, then yes, that’s exactly what I’d consider.’

Volyova looked at him craftily. ‘You’ve changed your tune, Clavain. Since when was evacuating Resurgam your highest priority?’

He looked at Felka. ‘I realised that the possession of the weapons was not quite the clear-cut issue I’d been led to believe. There were choices to be made, harder choices than I would have liked, and I realised that I had been neglecting them because of their very difficulty.’

Volyova said, ‘Then you don’t want the weapons, is that it?’

Clavain smiled. ‘Actually, I still do. And so do you. But I think we can come to an agreement, can’t we?’

‘We have a job to do here, Clavain. I’m not just talking about the evacuation of Resurgam. Do you honestly think I’d leave the Inhibitors to get on with their business?’

He shook his head. ‘No. As a matter of fact, I already had my suspicions.’

‘I’m dying, Clavain. I have no future. With the right intervention I might survive a few more weeks, no more than that. I suppose they might be able to do something for me on another world, assuming anyone still retains a pre-plague technology, but that would entail the tedious business of being frozen, something I have had quite enough of for one existence. So I am calling it a day.’ She raised a bird-boned wrist and thumped the bed. ‘I bequeath you this damned monstrosity of a ship. You can take it and the evacuees away from here once we’re done airlifting them from Resurgam. Here, I give it to you. It’s yours.’ She raised her voice, an effort that must have cost her more than he could even begin to imagine. ‘Are you listening, Captain? It’s Clavain’s ship now. I hereby resign as Triumvir.’

‘Captain…?’ Clavain ventured.

She smiled. ‘You’ll find out, don’t you worry.’