Glen Cook The Dragon Never Sleeps

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years.
WatchMaster Commander Haget, take your party aboard. Station Master, I ve
surveyed your data reservoir. The following persons are to be delivered to
me. Followed a list of forty-six, with job titles.
Station Master started to protest.
I have loosed a Hellspinner. This station can survive no more than seven.
Station Master got the message.
I am remanding to this station the crew and passengers of the confiscated
Cholot TravelerGlorious Spent . All passengers will be delivered to their
contracted destinations at the expense of House Cholot and will be reimbursed
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for their inconvenience and lost time.
There were no comforts aboard the ridership. Prisoners and rescuees alike
were crowded into a compartment that soon stank of fear and excretions for
which no facilities existed. Some prisoners babbled pleas to Haget.
Be quiet. I m no more in control here than you are.
The ridership settled intoIV Trajana s hull. The Guardship was in the groove
and running for the Web.
The same uncertain hologram waited outside the exit hatch. It seemed blind to
everyone but Haget. Bring them out, Commander.
Haget nodded to Jo. She herded the prisoners out and formed them in a column
of threes. They were beyond terror now, into that dulled, accepting, bovine
antihysteria that grips the victims of great disasters and atrocities, glazed
eyes becoming one-way glasses keeping reality at bay. Wake up some day and
find it all a bad dream.
Ha.
Lights came on ahead and died behind. Physically the Guardship resembledVII
Gemina . But it was empty. Haunted empty, leaving Jo feeling isolated and
alone. Like she had been warmed from storage to find the entire Guardship
abandoned but going on. Haulers and Travelers came off the Web that way
sometimes. Without a soul aboard and nothing to show what had become of the
crew.
It took half an hour to reach their destination. The same holo character
awaited them. Prisoners to the left, Commander. Your own facilities to the
right.
Jo?
There was an electronic barrier. It parted. A light came on. Jo moved the
prisoners.
Degas said, Hey, look. It s our old buddy Chief Timmerbach. How s it going?
Not so good?
AnyKaat silenced him. They left the lights on where we were, Degas.
The holograph told Haget, I m on the Web running for Starbase.Gemina will
put in before and after the action against the pirates. I have little capacity
for sustaining the living. I may dispose of the prisoners as I examine them.
My WarAvocat would want the Chief off the Traveler. And possibly the
krekelen.
In a moment of illumination, Jo realized Haget was talking directly toTrajana
. Directly! No one ever spoke toGemina direct, nor didGemina speak directly to
anyone. If that should happen, it would scare the crap out of the whole crew.
Bound for Starbase. For home. There was a lot of loneliness and uncertainty
out here. She missed the familial closeness of the squad and platoon, the
certainty of knowing who and what and where you were. She did not miss the
rigidity, the lack of humor and humanity in the chain of command.
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Things happened out here. Strange things, weird things,interesting things.
Today s universe was alien to the one where she had been bom.
Born? A woman she no longer remembered had carried her inside her body. Did
they still do that, down on the worlds? She could not recall the last time she
had seen a pregnant woman.
They did not have the several immortalities down there. That was not allowed.
Somebody too strong might come along.
This place was the antechamber of Hell. Here the shadows of madness met and
danced. She wanted out badly.
Once upon a time she had lived on a world, a child who could look up and see
uncovered sky... .What was the matter with her?
Shit. The place was creepy. And that damned spookTrajana was on a talking
jag, going like it would not stop till it dumped them at Starbase. Yakking
like some crazy old hermit who had not seen another human being in thirty
years.
Spider momma, ate all her babies, cries because she s all alone.
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Blessed scanned the report again, pushed it away, shook his head, pulled it
back, pushed it away again, looked at the others. What do you think, Cable?
Improbable. But it fits the facts.
A mutiny? A Canon legate and most of his staff murdered?
Killed accidentally, according to this. And the legate had not announced
himself.
They do that, Nyo said. Especially when they re sneaking around.
Tina said, Maybe that s what got them killed. Maybe they found something
out.
Cable said, The Traveler behaved erratically from the moment it broke off
the Web. It ID itself as the Hansa TravelerTrue Ceremonial .
And Bligger says it isn t? Based on the pathetic data he has?
Rolan Bligger was the Canon garrison in M. Shrilica system. An honorary, at
that. But he took his appointment seriously.
His ship records go way back. Only one HansaTrue Ceremonial is noted. It
vanished on the Web fifty-three years ago. He says this ship s markings were
either Sveldrov, Pioyugov, or Volgodon.
Stolen ship? That meant pirates.
That would explain their lack of interest in an investigation.
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