Chapter Two
In the vast universe, there are always hunters and their prey, either overt or latent. As a corollary, all relationships are only temporary, depending upon circumstances, mutual needs, and the availability of alternate sources of energy to satisfy the basic requirements of the living organisms. Symbiosis is only an illusion, and a potentially dangerous trap for the unwary.
—Master Noah Watanabe
As Tesh clung to the wall of the sectoid chamber at the nucleus of her podship, she guided the vessel along the gently curving strands of a deep-space web. Thinking back to a very special wild pod hunt centuries ago, she recalled her initiation into the ancient process. It had been in one of the darkest and most mysterious sectors of the galaxy, where hardly anything could be seen by the naked eye or instrumentation. But from an intense racial need, or survival-based instinct, Parviis on the hunt were able to see with a powerful inner eye—one that illuminated the fleeing podships as glowing green objects, like luminescent whales in a stygian sea.
She had been with other Parviis flying freely in space, millions and millions of them swarming to capture the feral pods, using neurotoxin stingers on the big, dumb creatures to subdue and train them. Gradually, as the podships were controlled and began to respond to the commands of their handlers, the Parviis cut back on the drugs, and drastically reduced their own numbers … until finally one tiny Parvii could control each Aopoddae vessel.
Employing that procedure, Tesh was given command of her first sentient ship. It had been an extraordinary, exhilarating experience, and she came to feel that the captured podship was her very own, like a Human teenager with a pony. At the time she knew the ownership sensation was preposterous, because her people rotated piloting duties, but she couldn’t help feeling it. Afterward, in due course, she passed the pod on to one of her comrades and went on to other duties.
Reminiscing now, she sighed and felt a profound, deeply satisfying connection with her people and their collective past. For hundreds of years Tesh had piloted countless other podships, but none had been as special as that first capture; like a first love, none had ever occupied the same place in her heart.
Within a narrow range, each Aopoddae ship had a subtly distinct personality, a slightly different way of responding to her commands. While all podships were similar in appearance, her trained eye could make out slightly different vein patterns on the skins, and with a touch she was able to distinguish varying textures. Inside the green, glowing core of this one, she inhaled deeply and identified barely perceptible musk odors, some of which reminded her of that first pod.
She was thinking how relaxing it was out here, speeding along the faint green web strands, hearing only the faint background hum of the sectoid chamber. Then the podship vibrated and slowed.
Using her linkage to peer through the eyes of the sentient vessel, Tesh saw that the web strand—ahead and behind—was slightly frayed, with tiny filaments fluttering in space, as if dancing on a cosmic breeze. Still vibrating, the vessel proceeded slowly over a rough section, making Tesh uneasy. She’d known the web was deteriorating but had never discovered the reason, and as a pilot she had never experienced anything like this before.
Presently the strand’s integrity improved and the podship accelerated again.
The web was a living organism, and over the eons slight aberrations had appeared in it, sections that were not perfectly symmetrical, but this was different. If she’d been a close confidante of the Eye of the Swarm, as she used to be, she could have asked him about it. Woldn was a storehouse of such information.
Parviis communicated with each other in a variety of ways. When flying in a swarm of only a few million individuals, they could beam thoughts to one another telepathically, and could communicate through speech when in close proximity. They could also transmit messages across great distances of space, from sectoid chamber to sectoid chamber, when piloting podships.
But since bygone times, the most important means by which Parviis remained in contact was through the extrasensory morphic field that extended outward from the Eye of the Swarm, reaching Parviis in all sectors of the galaxy. It was one-way, with only Woldn able to transmit freely across space with it, but for Tesh it had always been a comforting, wordless presence, an ineffable sensation that she was part of a larger organism, linked to the Eye and to every Parvii who had ever lived.
Recently, however, she had felt her connection to the morphic field weakening, and an odd, growing impression that she would one day be completely on her own. She wondered if it had anything to do with this podship she had taken control of without Woldn’s approval. She was a podship pilot by profession, but was only authorized to operate one that had been captured by a Parvii swarm, under Woldn’s supervision.
This Aopoddae was entirely different, a peculiar vessel that she had struggled against Noah Watanabe to control, and which he had eventually permitted her to operate while he took heroic action in an effort to save humankind.
Noah was unlike any humanus ordinaire who had ever lived. He had unfathomable powers, abilities that in some respects went beyond those of the Parviis, and of the Tulyans. He frightened her. She sensed that he could take control of the ship back from her at any moment, by reaching out telepathically and overriding her commands. It would do her no good to turn the podship over to the swarm; Noah could just take it back.
Her earlier experience with Noah had occurred during a hiatus from Tesh’s duties as a pilot, an ongoing break that had not been relaxing at all, not with all of the problems in the galaxy, including the terrible war between the merchant princes and the shapeshifters. She hoped Noah was safe, but since their parting she had only heard hearsay about him, that he had been taken into custody by the Doge Lorenzo, despite his selfless bravery.
With respect to the podship she was guiding now, she had never heard of a Parvii taking command of one this way. Tesh knew the situation was a gray ethical area, but perhaps in her unique situation she could make a salvage claim to Woldn, and be awarded long-term control of the vessel. She had never heard of a case exactly like this one, but over the millennia some Parviis had received rewards for extraordinary exploits. She recalled some details of other cases, drawing parallels so that she might argue her case to Woldn.
Besides, what if this particular vessel had been contaminated by Noah’s connection with it? It might make sense for her to keep it separate from others in the fleet, to avoid having all of them fall under Noah’s strange, potentially dangerous, spell.
But a sinking feeling told her this was an unfounded fear, a rationalization of her questing mind to come up with an excuse for keeping the podship.
Inside the green luminescence of the sectoid chamber, the background hum intensified, and she heard the Eye of the Swarm communicating with her over the strands of the podways. Tesh’s heart sank. But it was not a message for her alone … it was for all Parviis in sectoid chambers around the galaxy, and with it she heard the distant squeal of Woldn’s podship, from the extreme pain of the galactic transmission.
The urgent, drastic command of her superior appalled her. Despite the destruction of three podships by merchant prince guns, and the ongoing state of war between Humans and Mutatis, that did not justify Woldn’s decision. He was committing murder.
Impulsively, Tesh guided her podship through deep space at high speed, searching the main podways for jettisoned passengers that she might rescue. Time after time she arrived too late, however, and found the horribly damaged, space-frozen bodies and other remnants of victims, from most of the galactic races.
And no survivors.
Trying to maintain her composure, Tesh speculated on Woldn’s reasoning, that he wanted to discontinue all space travel immediately in the dangerous regions. Such a terrible way to do it, though. He should have ordered the ships to sectors that were not controlled by Humans or Mutatis, permitting the passengers to disembark safely.
Tesh was already considered something of a malcontent in the collective consciousness of her people. In the past she had voiced her opinions openly to Woldn, often to his annoyance. The last time she had defied him, he’d briefly suspended her privilege to pilot a podship. Something like that could happen again, or worse. But she could not worry about that, the stakes were too high. When she saw him again, she would be even more vociferous, no matter the consequences.
Stubbornly, Tesh continued to search the podways for signs of life, taking a few minutes longer. Then she set course toward the distant rendezvous point specified by Woldn, which for Parviis was the most secret, most secure place in the entire galaxy.
***