“I was trying to set the girl at ease.”

  Voyou stood at attention, and Severyne didn’t bother to set him at ease. “I must admit, you do seem to have a rapport with the creature.”

  He shrugged infinitesimally. “I am a slightly familiar face in a wildly unfamiliar place, captain. Someone surrounded by the unknown will cling to the known, however scant the connection.”

  “A reasonably astute observation,” Severyne acknowledged. Voyou was really quite capable – he’d run his portion of the annexation flawlessly, and even dealt with this… unexpected side mission… with aplomb. Severyne wasn’t in the habit of doling out compliments to underlings, however. Negative reinforcement was much more effective, in her experience. “I just hope Archambelle can turn up something useful about this girl. Did you see the way she reacted to the gravity here?”

  “More the way she failed to react, captain, but yes.”

  Severyne had deliberately cranked up the artificial gravity several percentage points above normal – not in her own cabin, of course, but everywhere else – in an attempt to make the girl feel weak and overwhelmed and dependent upon her arrival… but Bianca Xing had skipped along the corridors like she didn’t even notice, even as Severyne’s own crew visibly sagged under the strain. “That thing she said earlier, about the lights changing – are her eyes actually adjusting to conditions here? That quickly?”

  “It would seem so, captain.”

  Severyne leaned back in her chair. “I don’t like it when my tools are so unpredictable.”

  “The entire situation is unprecedented, captain. But I have no doubt you will handle it with grace and efficiency. You certainly worked out the best way to get her here without any complications.”

  Severyne turned back to the screen, where Archambelle was poking the girl with needles, presumably not just for her own amusement. “However unusual her origins, Xing is still just a young woman with big dreams from a backward place. Once you gathered some data regarding her personality, it was easy to tailor a story that would appeal to her. Of course she wants to believe she’s the lost heir to a great fortune, with the whole galaxy her playground. Who in her circumstances wouldn’t want that?” Severyne touched her terminal, pulling up the preliminary results of the medical exam as the machines hidden in the medical bay’s walls scanned their patient. The Xing girl seemed entirely human so far, but she had to be more than that, didn’t she? “The map and the key,” Severyne muttered.

  “What’s that, captain?”

  “Nothing,” Severyne said. “Dismissed. See that she’s treated with all due pomp and honor when you feed her.”

  “Captain.” He clicked his heels, turned smartly, and exited.

  Severyne rubbed her temples, a show of exhaustion and weariness she would have never indulged in while a subordinate was present – or a superior, for that matter. This was her first mission as captain of the Grim Countenance, and it should have been relatively simple. Her brief was to subjugate one of the old colonies of the Federation of Sol as a way of sticking a metaphorical thumb into the eye of their human rivals. Severyne was happy enough to comply. During her career, Severyne had met only a single human she didn’t entirely loathe, and even her, Severyne had partly loathed. As a result, she had the same instinctive antipathy toward Bianca Xing that she did for the rest of the population of Darit… but she wasn’t even sure the girl was human, or not entirely. Severyne was curious to see what Archambelle found. The doctor wasn’t Severyne’s superior, but she wasn’t her subordinate either, and the latest orders from Barony high command were to “aid the doctor in her researches.” They were, the captain had to admit, very interesting researches, with significant implications if Archambelle’s suspicions were true.

  The human factor was troubling, though. So much depended on that young woman with her head full of dreams.

  “The map and the key,” Severyne said again, louder this time since she was alone, and gazed at the sleeping girl on the screen.

  •••

  The call that changed Severyne’s mission came from one of the survey ships, out searching for ancient human weapons hidden on Darit. The locals might choose to stage an uprising, after all, and it would be preferable if they didn’t come armed with anything more deadly than sticks, rocks, and gunpowder. There was always the chance of finding buried treasure on these colony worlds, too – caches of wealth or resources, embarrassing old secrets – though the Federation of Sol hadn’t been present here for millennia, and the odds of turning up anything interesting were low.

  Severyne’s first officer, Richeline, buzzed her private comms. “Captain, one of the survey ships found something unusual in Undercommandant Voyou’s sector.”

  A two-headed sheep, perhaps? Severyne thought. A gourd of astonishing size? “Brief me in person,” she said, on the off chance that it was something relevant.

  Richeline sidled into the room; she always moved like an assassin creeping up on her target, even when in plain sight. Severyne liked her as much as she liked anyone: Richeline was poisonously ambitious, but her ambitions didn’t overlap much with Severyne’s. She wanted to lead covert specialist kill teams, and had only requested a post on a pacification ship to polish the “leadership skills” section of her file. Severyne had no interest in being an assassin. She wanted to be the person gathering intelligence and dispatching the kill teams. Why get blood all over her own boots?

  “Take a seat.” Severyne gestured at the chair on the other side of her desk, which was, she knew, the single most uncomfortable seat on the ship.

  Richeline perched on the edge of the chair (the least painful option), her uniform perfect, a tiny scarlet teardrop insignia on the collar her only deviation from the standard: only survivors of the Battle of Three Lions were permitted to display that pin. Severyne had looked into her file and knew Richeline had been knocked unconscious by the first sonic bombardment at that battle, and had awakened on a hospital ship with no memory of the previous three days, but she had survived the engagement, which technically entitled her to the pin, and suggested she was lucky, at least. “Thank you, captain. I know you didn’t want to go down to Darit at all, but… this might benefit from your personal involvement.”

  Severyne’s exact words had been, “I don’t intend to set foot on that human-infested ball of excrement,” and she’d meant it, but now she was intrigued. “Do tell.”

  “May I?” Severyne granted Richeline access to one of her screens, and bright clear footage appeared: someone walking through a dreary forest, toward a steep, muddy hill.

  “This is from one of our surveyors? Why did they land?” The survey ships were supposed to fly low, scanning the ground for signs of buried technology, with search teams to follow. They weren’t supposed to land and poke around personally.

  “Extraordinary circumstances,” Richeline said. “I authorized it.”

  Severyne grunted. That level of initiative was within her remit as first officer. Severyne didn’t want to be bothered by every little thing, after all. Nevertheless, she paused the playback. “Why?”

  “The surveyors picked up readings inconsistent with human technology… inconsistent, indeed, with any known technology. What they found is older than the human colonization of this planet.”

  “What do you mean? I thought Darit had no native sapients?”

  “It didn’t,” Richeline said. “Someone else came here, a long time ago, and built… a sort of laboratory.”

  “Who? Do you mean… the Lazax?” Those aliens were the former rulers of the galaxy, now degenerate and debased, but at their height they’d possessed incomprehensible powers.

  Richeline licked her lips. “Ah. No. Older.”

  “Older? Who are you talking about?”

  “Have you ever heard of the Prophecy of Ixth, captain?”

  Severyne frowned. “Ixth? That’s the promised land, where the Letnev will someday dwell in blissful, perfect darkness? Why are you talking about children’s stories, Richeline?”

  Richeline cleared her throat. “It’s more than just the Letnev. Almost every culture in the galaxy has legends about the lost paradise world of Ixth. The tales are older than the Lazax, and they pop up everywhere.”

  “That’s because people everywhere are fools, Richeline, and would rather imagine a paradise waiting for them in the future than do the hard work of creating their own paradise here and now.”

  Richeline seemed to change tack. “How much do you know about Doctor Archambelle, captain?”

  “I know she asked me to get her human test subjects from Darit so she could vivisect them and see how they’d diverged anatomically and genetically from their cousins in the Federation of Sol,” Severyne replied. “That told me everything I need to know about her.”

  “I served with her on a prior mission,” Richeline said. “She is a scholar of the body, yes, but also of antiquity, and a believer in the powers of ancient, lost science – technology so advanced that its users would seem like gods to us. She believes Ixth is a real place, and a treasure trove of technological wonders powerful enough to transform the balance of power in the galaxy.”

  “Oh. She’s a lunatic, then.”

  “I’m… not sure, captain. Archambelle’s studies have led her to remote dig sites on forgotten worlds, and she has pored over old scrolls, tablets, databases, and drives that expand on the prophecy of Ixth. She has even, she says, seen some remnants of their technology. Before we began our survey, she took me aside and asked me to report any peculiarities we found to her. When I asked what sort of peculiarities, she specified exactly the sort of readings we found in that forest.”

  Severyne didn’t allow herself to react. So, Archambelle had a secret mission, hidden within Severyne’s own. That was irritating, though hardly unprecedented among her people. Wheels within wheels was the norm. “And you promptly shared your discovery with the good doctor?” Severyne didn’t try to keep the ice from her voice.

  “No, captain.” Richeline shook her head firmly. “This is your ship. You decide who receives information, and why. I just wanted to place what you’re about to see in context. This place… it may be a relic of a truly forgotten age. Archambelle says she believes an ancient, almost forgotten alien race created Ixth, and that they may have also come to Darit.”

  Why would ancient powerful aliens ever come here? Severyne silently resumed the video playback. The surveyor approached the hillside, and directed a many-armed utility drone bobbing along on anti-gravity thrusters to clear the dirt and mud away. The machine worked furiously, scooping and scraping, until a portion of a metal doorway was revealed. Bright metal was overlapped by duller sheets of steel, crudely welded on. “Someone tried to seal this place up,” Severyne said. “One of the locals must have found your ancient relic before you. There won’t be anything of value inside by now, I’m sure. It’s all picked over by grave robbers.”

  Richeline didn’t answer, just inclined her head at the screen, as if to say: keep watching.

  The utility drone tore away the metal patch and hauled the door open, metal bending with a grinding squeal. The camera view moved in, with the surveyor shining a light into the space beyond. The light was swiftly made redundant, though – when the surveyor stepped inside, the chamber illuminated, revealing a wall of screens and dials and lights, a control console… and a skeleton on the floor.

  “Interesting,” Severyne said. “Are the remains human? No, I can see they’re not.” The surveyor ducked down to look at the body, and its head was bulbous and misshapen, its limbs oddly proportioned. “What is it?”

  “I don’t know,” Richeline said. “We can ask Archambelle, if you like. Anatomy is one of her passions.”

  Severyne grunted. The surveyor stepped over the body, moving closer to the console. If he touched anything in there, she would have his skin peeled off–

  But he knew his work. He merely panned his camera slowly around, taking in the whole room. “What is that little window?” Severyne said. “In the center of all the screens?”

  “We don’t know,” Richeline said. “But look, here it comes–” The screens lit up and began to scroll unfamiliar glyphs, startling the surveyor, who hastily retreated from the hidden lab, if that’s what it was, and back to the forest. The video ended.

  “Was that gibberish on the screens supposed to mean something to me?”

  “When I was with Doctor Archambelle on that other mission, at a remote dig site… we saw screens with glyphs a lot like those, captain. I can’t be sure, we’d have to check with the doctor, but… I think it’s a language used by these ancient aliens Archambelle talks about.”

  Severyne grunted. “I will go to the surface in one hour. The site is to be secured until my arrival. Tell Archambelle I require her company for a visit to Darit, but don’t give her any further information. You will have command of the Grim Countenance while I am gone. Do not use that command to do anything at all.”

  Richeline bowed her head. “Yes, captain.”

  Severyne flicked her fingers. “Dismissed.” Richeline departed, and Severyne sat in the dimness of her office for a long moment, thinking about the deep past and the uncertain future.

  Chapter 14

  Not long after her meeting with Richeline, Severyne set foot on the surface of her colony world for the first, and, she hoped, last time. Darit smelled, and it was much too bright, and the gravity was different, and there were bugs. Severyne hated each new problem she noticed slightly more than the last, due to the cumulative effects.

  Her shuttle landed as close to the mystery site as possible, but reaching the location still required a long slog through leaf mold and mud, beneath spindly trees that made ominous whispering sounds in the wind. The whole place would have benefited greatly from a raging forest fire. Severyne could have piloted an all-terrain vehicle through the filth instead of walking – there were numerous forms of ground transportation available, fast-moving nimble things designed for putting down all the insurrections that hadn’t happened – but she refused to show anything like weakness.

  Besides, Archambelle clearly hated walking through the dirt even more than Severyne did, so that was a pleasure. Her uniform was bright white, and showed the muck rather more starkly than Severyne’s blacks. They had four armed guards with them, faceless in their reflective dark helmets, and the soldiers formed a square with the doctor and the captain in the center. In theory, the locals could use their knowledge of local terrain to wage effective guerilla warfare, and such precautions were standard for an officer visiting a newly annexed area. In practice, the natives seemed more baffled by the arrival of their new masters than combative. They’d never really been ruled before, apparently. They didn’t know what to make of the experience.

  They reached the hillside – Severyne recognized it from the video – and there were two surveyors there, armed with energy weapons, a utility drone patrolling around them. Archambelle started to rush forward, and Severyne cleared her throat. The doctor paused, looked at her, and sighed. “Really, captain, I am eager to look inside.”

  “I can’t imagine why,” Severyne said. “All I told you was the survey team had discovered something anomalous, and I wanted you to take a look. It’s almost like you expected to find something here.”

  “Isn’t it?” Archambelle said brightly.

  “I wondered why someone of your standing and experience was sent along on an annexation mission. I assumed you’d done something to enrage one of your superiors, and once I spent a little time with you, I was confident I’d guessed correctly. But you came to Darit for a reason. You were expecting to find something like this.”

  Archambelle stared at Severyne for a moment, sucking her teeth. It was a disgusting habit. “Expecting is too strong a word,” she said at last. “Hoping, perhaps. Fortunately, I have enough influence in the right circles that hope was enough for me to secure the assignment.”

  “What are we walking into?” Severyne said.

  “I am not entirely sure,” Archambelle said. “But if we’re lucky… we might just find the keys to paradise.”

  “Someone else gave me a vague and poetic answer to a serious question, once,” Severyne mused. “He had twice as many kneecaps before he did that as he did afterward. Try again. If you don’t answer me to my satisfaction, you aren’t setting foot inside that chamber.”

  Archambelle scowled. “One call to my friends in the Barony–”

  “How would you place such a call?” Severyne said. “Not from the surface of this planet, certainly, and I’m afraid you may need to stay here indefinitely. I understand some of the locals have parasites and fungal infections, things like that. Your skills are definitely needed. Try again.”

  “You are not my superior officer, Severyne. I don’t take orders from you.”

  Severyne picked up a stick and whipped it viciously through the air a few times. “That’s true. Of course, everyone in a position to get you off this planet does take orders from me. Or were you going to walk back to the Grim Countenance? Try. Again.”

  The doctor sighed. The guards and surveyors were stoically pretending to ignore the friction between their superior officers. “Fine,” Archambelle said. “Have you heard of the prophecy of Ixth?”

  “Of course. Hasn’t everyone?” The entirety of her knowledge, apart from the half-remembered fairy stories she’d mentioned to Richeline, had been acquired from a database query earlier that day, but Severyne hadn’t attained her rank by showing weakness.