Shingen-Hu leaned outward and peered back down. The Father of Gods was stuck to a knob of anchorite and gesticulating frantically. Hunt began traversing toward him but became entangled with a growth of clingweed hanging from a crevice, while the redheaded female below them was scrabbling futilely at a block of lubrite, which contained grains of mobilium and was unclimbable. They were acting like children to try him, Shingen-Hu realized. The test was not over yet.
Meanwhile, priests and soldiers were appearing from the confusion on the other side of the gorge. “Thrax, thou must cross over now and assist,” Shingen-Hu called down. From his stance above he helped Thrax across the gorge, then turned and resumed climbing.
But as he reached the top, Thrax’s voice came up from below. “‘Tis beyond all hope, Master. They are as fish stranded in mud.”
Shingen-Hu looked back across the gorge. The soldiers had reached the jutting rock and were dragging back the female and the long-headed one who had been left. “Then save thyself, Thrax,” he called back down. “Nothing can be gained by thy sacrifice.”
Thrax joined him at the top of the cliff minutes later. By that time the long-headed one and the short-skirted female had been led away, and soldiers had descended to the stream and were wading across. On the trail above the soldiers, the priests had assembled around the Examiner and were directing a paralyzing influence across at the three emissaries stranded below. Shingen-Hu looked on dejectedly. He had failed.
Movement higher up above caught his eye. A flock of vultures was circling above the trail, right over the spot where the priests were gathered. Raising his arm, he pointed at them, his eyes glinting malevolently. Seized by a sudden compulsion, the birds voided their contents upon the priests from on high. Shingen-Hu and Thrax turned and walked sadly away.
In the Shapieron, orbiting high over Jevlen, Eesyan was explaining over the connection from Thurien what would be involved in restoring VISAR’s connection to JEVEX.
“The line out from the club connected into the regular Jevlenese planetary communications net,” he said from one of the large screens overlooking the command deck. “The activation codes that were fed in triggered an i-link termination node somewhere, which was programmed with the operating parameters to access JEVEX. To restore the connection we need to do two things: first, find an entry point into the planetary net that bypasses the normal security checks; and second, input the same activation codes to it that Keshen entered from the club.”
“So that would trigger the same i-space terminal to connect to Uttan,” Hunt said. He was standing with Danchekker and Keshen beside the Ganymeans, Leyel Torres and Rodgar Jassilane. “We wouldn’t need to know where the node is located or what it is, or exactly how it functions?”
“That’s right,” Keshen confirmed.
“But I thought all the links were shut down,” Jassilane said. “Isn’t that what disconnected you in the first place?”
“Yes,” Eesyan agreed. “Apart from one that they’ve probably got open to their people inside PAC-but that would be inaccessible to us, anyway. But in order to stage his invasion from Uttan, Eubeleus will have to open JEVEX to access from Jevlen-based trunk nodes again. What we’re saying is that when he does, VISAR will have been routed through to one of them.”
Jassilane looked inquiringly at Keshen.
The Jevlenese nodded. “If we can get back into the net,” he confirmed.
Gina watched with Nixie, Fendro, and Murray, over on one side. There was nothing she could contribute, and tossing in questions that could just as well be answered later would only delay things. Nixie, Fendro, and Murray were still too awed at the interior of the starship to have much thought about anything else, anyway.
“And I think there’s a way we might be able to do it,” Keshen said. He looked around quickly. “Through one of the redirector satellites that were left functioning. There are about thirty of them. They’re part of the regular net, unmanned, and a long way out.” The others were listening intently. He spread his hands and went on. “If we could get to one of them and find a way inside it, I think I could break into one of the primary circuits. That would bypass the protection. The network itself would take care of finding a route to wherever the access code indicates. We don’t have to know where it points.”
“Do you know the codes?” Eesyan asked. He sounded dubious, as if he found the thought unlikely.
Keshen looked surprised. “But I assumed VISAR had the codes,” he replied. “VISAR was connected when I entered them at the club. Isn’t it true?”
“They were stored in local memory,” VISAR said. “They got lost when I was cut off.”
Eubeleus paced agitatedly to and fro across the floor of the main control center deep beneath the surface of Uttan. The latest report from Jevlen was that the Shapieron had lifted out from the planet and was riding in orbit. It was the Shapieron that had slipped in close under the planet’s defensive guard during the Pseudowar and intercepted a communications beam to let VISAR into JEVEX. All his instincts told him that the Terrans were going to try the same thing again. He should have felt completely confident, he knew, for this time he had foreseen their plan; but he found himself unable to shake off an oppressive nervousness, which he traced back to the knowledge that Hunt and Danchekker were involved. It meant that anything could happen: especially something that nobody else had thought of.
“How close to completion is the final integration sequence?” he asked the operators clustered around the supervisory console.
“It’s practically complete now,” Iduane answered.
“Good. Run a double check on all communications input channels. I want to be absolutely sure that no illicit accesses are being tried anywhere. Assign it a class-one priority.”
“Understood.”
“What is the Shapieron doing?” Eubeleus asked another operator, who was monitoring the tracking data being relayed via PAC from the Jevlenese surveillance system.
“Still holding LJO. No new developments.”
Eubeleus stopped, stared at the screen showing Langerif and his officers in the PAC communications room, then turned away and started pacing again. “I don’t like it,” he muttered. “I don’t trust that ship.”
“It’s not doing anything,” Iduane pointed out. “And what can it do? Our surveillance will be following it from Jevlen every inch of the way, wherever it goes.”
“It’s not safe so long as it’s anywhere in the vicinity of Jevlen,” Eubeleus said. “I’m not proceeding further until we get rid of it.”
“Get rid of it?” Iduane looked perplexed. “How? Jevlen doesn’t have any strategic defenses.”
“There must be some way of-” Eubeleus stopped and looked over at the screen showing Langerif again. “Wait. We’ve still got their illustrious commander, haven’t we?” he said, moving back across. “The leader who brought them back after all those years. They wouldn’t want anything to happen to him, now, would they?” He nodded, satisfied. “And you’ve got some others there that we can use as hostages, isn’t that right? Who are they?”
“Two scientists, who work with Hunt and Danchekker,” Langerif replied. “Also the Terran who was in charge of security here.”
Eubeleus looked gratified. “Perfect! Get a laser link to whoever is in command of the Shapieron and have those three brought up to where you are, right away. We’ll have that ship out of harm’s way within an hour.” He looked across at Iduane. “Suspend all further action concerning the Awakening for the time being,” he ordered.
Iduane nodded but didn’t look happy about it. “What about the Prophet? He’s still there with all the people, waiting for you to take over.”