A Dark And Hungry God Arises 5 - Davies [1]

[Cord Hurn]

Davies Hyland is hurtling through space in an ejection pod. Nick has had Davies' pod launched from Captain's Fancy to head toward the ship Tranquil Hegemony, for the pod to be collected by the Amnion aboard the latter ship. Restrained inside the ejection pod, Davies is stressing that the Amnion will painstakingly study him to aid in creating mutagens that change humans into Amnion without changing outward appearance. He fears being party to the betrayal of humanity. And he fears his likely fate of being mutated into an Amnioni once the Amnion are done studying him.

But Davies is stressed by other factors in his situation, as well. He doesn't have much memory that has not been replicated from his mother Morn, his memory abruptly ends at the point when his mother encountered heavy g on Starmaster, he's never met the man his body genetically resembles, and he doesn't understand why it was necessary for Morn to have the Amnion force-grow his body and imprint her memories on his mind. Davies doesn't know why all this stress hasn't driven him mad, already.

Sweating inside the cramped pod, Davies reviews what he has been told by Morn and Nick about himself, his mother, and his father. He remembers being told by Morn that he doesn't have her gap-sickness, and he recalls that Nick hates him because Morn lied about his being Nick's son. Davies then remembers what Nick has told him about his parents, that his father is an incarcerated butcher who forced a zone implant upon his mother to control her, and that his mother is a zone implant junkie who only wanted to give birth to Davies because the sickbay computer would have detected her zone implant if she'd have tried for an abortion.

But Davies is steadied by seeing the lies in Nick's claims about his mother, because she could have used her police training to erase the sickbay log, because she tried to help him escape from the Amnion and understand his situation, and because her statement of purpose to not betray humanity is confirmed by her memories within him. Soon he stops worrying about who he is, and resumes worrying about where he's going, wishing he could maneuver way from the Amnion ship. There must be a way to take control of the pod, he feels, but he can't think of how to do it.

If he'd known his father, he might have recognized Angus Thermopyle's instinctive reaction to futility and fear.

But he hadn't known his father. He couldn't remember anything that might help him as the pod cut in thrust--acceleration, not braking--and began to veer away from Tranquil Hegemony. He could only stare at the screens with his heart hammering in his throat and sweat streaming off his forehead, and wonder who was being betrayed now.

If Captain's Fancy and Tranquil Hegemony were talking to each other--shouting at each other?--he didn't hear it: the pod's receivers were tuned to the wrong frequencies or the messages were tight-beamed. But he saw his course shift away from the Amnion ship; felt lateral thrust as well as acceleration until his new trajectory stabilized and thrust cut out.

Then the screens showed him that he was now running straight for the unreadable stone of Thanatos Minor.

When Tranquil Hegemony didn't fire on him, he knew he'd been granted a temporary reprieve.

In response his heart started beating even harder, and sweat ran into his eyes like oil.

At his present velocity, a landing on Thanatos Minor would crush him to undifferentiated pulp--if it didn't consume him in a fireball first. Precisely for that reason, Thanatos Minor would blast him out of space before he hit, to avoid being damaged by the impact. There was nothing he could do about it.

Nevertheless he was out of Tranquil Hegemony's reach, at least for the time being. Any death was preferable to the one Nick Succorso had intended for him. And according to the screens, he now had nearly six more hours to live.

We have been told, in the previous Gap book Forbidden Knowledge, that Morn managed to change the pod's programming in terms of its speed and trajectory away from the Amnion ship and towards Thanatos Minor, but Davies is at first unsure who is responsible. But he considers that it is Nick's intentions that are being foiled, so it must be his mother that is behind the pod's course change. His mother seems to him much like a miracle-worker overcoming the odds, and he feels hope that he has inherited that ability. And this keeps him sane.

[Cord Hurn]

Some time later, the pod's screens tell Davies that a vessel from Thanatos Minor is moving to intersect the pod's trajectory and collect it. His memories of Morn's UMCP training help him understand that this other ship matched speeds with his pod, accepted the pod into a holding area, and secured it through a clamping system. And now that ship is slowing down, forcing Davies temporarily against the pod's restraints. The ship must be controlled by human illegals, Davies realizes, so they represent adversaries that could add to his suffering.

The pod pops its locks and unseals its hatch when its scans register a breathable atmosphere. A guard opens the pod hatch, points a gun at Davies' head, and demands he get out of the pod. Davies sees that he is in an uncomfortably cold cargo hold, held at gunpoint by a guard with a gun for a right arm and a metal tripod for a left foot. The guard repeats his demand, and Davies grudgingly gets out of the pod, looking around the cargo bay as the chill takes ahold of him.

The guard wasn't alone. A man and a woman stood fifteen or twenty meters away, watching him. They were bundled in coldsuits that muffled their shapes; but their hands and boots looked normal, and their faces were human.

The man's head was so long and thin that it seemed like a caricature of itself. Because he was unusually tall, he gave the impression that inside his coldsuit his whole body was thin. A nearly lipless mouth smiled over crooked teeth. Beneath a thatch of dirty hair, his eyes glittered as if he'd artificially reinforced his concentration with enkephalins.

That glitter and his smile made him look like a madman.

The woman appeared stable by comparison. Despite its lines, her face was still handsome; gray highlights did nothing to cheapen the richness of her hair. Davies would have said she was a beautifully mature woman whose best years weren't far behind her. Only a slight stiffness in the way she carried herself suggested that she may have been older than she looked.

They both recognize Davies' resemblance to his father Angus, and Davies warns them Angus won't be pleased if they let his son freeze. The long-headed man tells him threats won't help him, and demands to know how Davies changed the pod's course. Davies states he didn't do it, and the woman supports him on that. The nearly-lipless long-headed man asks Davies' name. Davies at first refuses, but complies after the man identifies himself as the Bill and threatens Davies with BR (bio-retributive) surgery.

The Bill and the woman recognize the name Davies Hyland and reason Angus kidnapped Morn after Starmaster was destroyed and impregnated her with young Davies. The Bill is puzzled that Davies appears too old to be the son of Morn and Angus, but the woman reminds him Nick's ship came from Enablement Station. So, the Bill asks Davies why the ship Captain's Fancy was at Enablement. Before he succumbs to hypothermic sleep, Davies decides to state that Morn is on an unknown mission for the UMCP, and that Nick is working with her.

But it didn't work. Not the way he wanted. Out of the cold and the gathering dark, the man said, "I don't believe you. Enablement is the only place she could have obtained a kid your age. That means you must have been the reason they went there. There must be something"--Davies heard relish in the word--"special about you. Otherwise our hosts wouldn't want you back.

"I'm quite sure you know what that something is. Eventually you're going to tell me. You're going to tell me what kind of game they're playing."

Davies couldn't see the deck in front of him.

What kind of game.

He no longer knew whether his eyes were open.

They're playing.

Maybe, he thought as he sagged dumbly onto his face, maybe it worked after all.

For being a confused soul who's been in near-constant danger shortly after being force-grown, Davies isn't doing too badly for himself in figuring out what he can say to extend his survival. He's made the Bill and his female ally less likely to believe in or cooperate with Nick.