The Solanae's name, it seems, is Tyonovon. The universal translator gives it - her - a feminine voice. I'm not sure how conventional ideas about gender correspond to Solanae ones, but that's probably the least of my worries, just now.
Tyonovon is leading us - I don't know; I think it's upwards, but we have been through a dizzying maze of corridors and halls and machine rooms, and my sense of direction - such as it was - is thoroughly jumbled up. Pearl seems no better off. The android seems tense, almost nervous, even though she can't be. She turns the gaze of those metal eyes - and the muzzle of the Voth gun - on every doorway we pass.
"How much longer now?" I ask Tyonovon, as we pause in a small round room. The bulbous shape of a Solanae console dominates one wall, but I am far too tired to investigate it now. The adrenaline from the discovery of the Solanae, and the flight from the Voth, has worn off, and I am acutely aware of how far I have walked.
"Not far," Tyonovon says. "I am leading you by back ways, though, in case the other gods try to pursue us. No one knows the passages of the Home as we do." She moves towards another round doorway. She is showing no sign of fatigue. And Pearl, of course, can't feel fatigue. I am the only one with sore feet and drooping whiskers, it seems.
"The other gods?" I ask.
"She must mean the Voth," Pearl murmurs.
"Does that make us -?" But Tyonovon opens the door and steps through before I can finish the question.
I exchange glances with Pearl. I certainly don't feel like a god.
We follow Tyonovon into another passage, one that winds in a steep spiral around a semi-transparent tube, several metres thick, lit by a pulsating blue glow. "Tetryon conduit," says Pearl, and Tyonovon stops and turns around to face us.
"You understand this?" she asks.
"Some of it," Pearl says. "Commodore Fallon made a study of another spire. It's how we - well, how he kept ahead of the Voth. Until now."
I look at the glowing tube. I'd have pegged the blue lights as some sort of Cherenkov emission, certainly, but Pearl seems very sure about what sort of particles are involved. "Is there anything else we should know?" I ask her.
"Commodore Fallon managed to interpret a lot of Solanae data signals. He - was - a talented man, sir. We were able to decipher a lot of low-level data output - the sort of automatic signals the machines send. I told him, sir, that he should have submitted this to Science Division - that they could have made a lot more of it. But he said he didn't want to send in his findings until he had more data - that he wouldn't bother Science Division with preliminary results -"
"I'll bet," I mutter. "Commodore Fallon always wanted to keep his edge over everyone else, yes?"
"That's not the reasoning he gave, sir," says Pearl.
Tyonovon steps a little closer to us. "Do you... fight... amongst yourselves?" she asks. The translator makes her voice sound puzzled.
"We have - differences of opinion, I guess," I say. "Doesn't everyone? Don't you?"
"Sometimes," says Tyonovon. I can't read the expression, if any, on her rigid chitinous face. "The People... argue amongst themselves. I have had some words with Siffaith... but it is strange. To think of you... arguing...."
"We're just people," I say.
Tyonovon turns from me to Pearl, then back again. It seems she is on the verge of saying something - then she turns abruptly, and starts again upwards, up the spiral corridor. "We must reach Siffaith," she says.
I trudge after her. Out of the corner of my mouth, I say to Pearl, "Is that data still aboard the Tempest?"
"It'll be in the computer core. Assuming the Voth haven't destroyed the ship."
"I don't think they have. This place is shielded, yes, but a core breach this close would have registered on my tricorder." I'm starting to think about this. Can I scrape together a skeleton crew for the Tempest? I don't have many people aboard the Timor - but if the Tempest is still intact, if we can get enough people to work that ship, we may stand a better chance against the Voth. There's no way, though, that I could spare enough people to run the Tapiola.... T'Pia is gone. I still find it hard to believe.
"Not far now," says Tyonovon. She's said that before, damn her.
Two more revolutions around the spiral, and then the corridor stretches out, straight and level, ahead of us, to another door. Tyonovon goes up to it, and it splits open for her.
Beyond it is a big room, clearly some sort of engineering or control room. There are low, humped Solanae consoles and free-floating data terminals everywhere, and semitransparent screens hanging in the air, displaying data that's incomprehensible to me. Some of the floor - isn't floor; it's made of force fields with that disturbing liquid rippling look. And there are two robed figures in among all the consoles - two figures who turn with startled speed at our entrance. They are wearing loose hooded robes with a metallic sheen. Solanae. These ones look like Solanae.
"Siffaith," says Tyonovon. "Dyegh. We need your help. The new gods came -"
"You have brought them with you," says one of the Solanae. Masculine voice. And he doesn't sound pleased.
"Not the bad ones. Siffaith, there are these, and there are the others. The other ones - they were at the game - they killed, Siffaith. They killed - oh, they killed many, before we fled. Siffaith, we need help."
My gaze darts from one to the other of the robed Solanae - trying, I suppose, to work out which one is which. I think the one called Siffaith, the one doing the talking, is slightly taller - or the other is slouching or slumping, perhaps.
"I have already engaged the spire's security systems," says Siffaith. "I did not know - so much harm had been done." He turns towards me and Pearl. "We do not involve ourselves in your conflicts. You should leave."
"Easier said than done." Perhaps it's not a diplomatic thing to say, but I'm tired and fearful and irritable.
"We do not take sides in the wars of the gods -" the shorter one begins.
"Can we get one thing straight?" I snarl angrily. "We are not gods. My people have a law, a strict law, that says we can't even pretend to be gods. We're just people." With an effort, I bring myself back under control. I take a step forwards. "My name is M'eioi. This is Pearl. And Tyonovon is right, we need your help. And just maybe, you need ours too."
Siffaith and Dyegh both stare at me. It's an uncomfortable moment, two expressionless masks with great round eyes, looking at me from under those cowls.
"The others killed, Siffaith." Tyonovon sounds obstinate. "These did not."
"We would have helped, if we could," I say. "We have no quarrel with you." Probably.
"The others have no quarrel with us, either," says Siffaith.
"Tell them that," I say.
Siffaith takes a step towards me, now. His huge eyes seem intent. "You claim there is a difference between you and them. Explain."
I swallow, hard. "We're explorers. Mostly. We - happened - on this place, while we were investigating some relics of an ancient race called the Iconians."
Siffaith turns to glance at Dyegh. "The name of the old gods," the smaller Solanae says. "If this machine of theirs is translating correctly -"
"That sounds about right," I say. "The Iconians don't have a problem claiming to be gods. It turned out we were... at war with them. Half the time, we never even knew it. But it's over now." Probably. Again. "You people are descendants of the original Solanae who built this sphere, yes?"
"The Progenitors," says Siffaith. "They are... gone. I do not understand, entirely, how or where they are gone."
"Driven into subspace by the runaway tetryon field," I say. "Converted into a life form that can't exist in normal space. The heavy shielding on this facility must have protected your remote ancestors -"
"Millions upon millions of hours ago," says Dyegh. "The Progenitors - they still survive? Transformed like that?"
"Their remote descendants, I suppose, yes. Perhaps that's one way we could help each other. Now the Iconians have gone, you might be able to help us make peaceful contact with those Solanae. If we can all get out of our present difficulties."
"With the other new gods," says Siffaith. "Why are they our enemies, then? When you are not?"
"The Voth," I say. "They're called the Voth. They arrived here around the same time we did. The trouble is, they are convinced of their own superiority. Their right to rule. It's a cultural thing.... Among other things, they think their people built this sphere."
"We built the Land!" Dyegh shrills.
"The Voth think differently. They think they own the sphere. And they're prepared to back that claim with force."
"That is true, Siffaith," says Tyonovon. "I saw."
"And what about you?" Siffaith asks me. "You are surely more than just explorers. You have weapons of your own, I have seen that for myself. You say you pose no threat, but I must be convinced."
I sigh. "We're not supposed to interfere with other cultures. It's an ideal... sometimes, in the real world, it's hard to hold to ideals. When we arrived here, the Voth were harvesting the Omega particles the sphere creates - if you know anything about the sphere's purpose, you know how dangerous that is. We had to stop them, before they caused some sort of catastrophe -"
"You destroyed the control systems which could transport the Land through subspace," says Dyegh. "This much, I know. Was that deliberate?"
"Sort of. It's - complicated. Taking out the control centre activated a fail-safe, opened a gateway to another sphere. And then another enemy used that to attack us... all part of the Iconians' manipulations. The gateway opened up access to another part of the galaxy, and we got involved there, too - involved enough for the Iconians to take an active part against us." I sigh again, and put a hand to my forehead. "There's been too much war already, and no end in sight."
"Complicated," says Siffaith. "Yes, it sounds complicated, truly. What complications brought you here? To our home?"
"We detected unusual power surges, tetryon emissions, other things. It was clear someone was doing something with the sphere's systems. We had to find out what it was - in case it was something, well, potentially dangerous -"
"The Voth must have picked up the same readings," Pearl chimes in suddenly. "They had enough control to use your tetryon generators -"
"They put my work back hundreds of hours!" Dyegh shouts.
"They are the enemy," says Tyonovon. "Siffaith, I do not think these - people - are."
"We came here in science vessels," I say. "Not unarmed, we can't go completely unarmed - but light ships, designed for exploration and research. You can probably scan our ships, you can check that for yourselves. The Voth -"
"Bulwark-class cruiser," says Pearl. She steps forward now. "Also, I have one of their guns in my hands, right now." She levels the weapon at Siffaith. "If we were hostile -"
There is a short, pregnant silence. Then Pearl flips the gun over in her hands and offers it to Siffaith. "There."
Siffaith reaches out one claw-like member and takes the gun. It dips and wobbles alarmingly as Pearl lets go, then steadies as Siffaith realizes the weight of it. The red-glowing muzzle wavers, pointing at me, at Pearl, at nothing in particular -
"I do not know how to use it," says Siffaith. He offers the gun back to Pearl. She takes it.
"They're pretty simple, really," she says. "Killing often is."
"Especially for the Voth military," I say. "If you have some way to clear them out, you'd better use it. Afterwards -" If there is any afterwards. "- afterwards, we would like to negotiate. Freely and openly. We want to know about you, learn from you. And you could learn from us, too, if you chose."
"I am... here to learn," says Siffaith. "If you are here for that, too... perhaps we have something in common."
"Can you secure this area?" I ask. "How safe are we, here?"
"I have brought the security swarmers to full alert status," says Siffaith, "and activated biometric lockouts on the main access routes. Anyone who is not of the People will find difficulties in traversing the Home. I was about to investigate other methods when you arrived." He glances over at Dyegh. "Understand this. Our main purposes must be to protect the People, and to interfere as little as possible with Dyegh's work. It is his goal that drives us."
"All right," I say. "But perhaps you can explain, now... this work, this goal, it's got to be the reason behind the energy fluxes and the tetryon signals we detected. The things that brought us here." I decide to go straight to the source - I turn towards the smaller Solanae. "Dyegh. What are you doing here?"
"It is very simple," says Dyegh. "I am trying to repair the sun."
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