Aldebaran Divided by Philippe Mercurio

Author:Philippe Mercurio [Mercurio, Philippe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: nogartha.com
Published: 2020-06-18T22:00:00+00:00

XV

ARREST

LAORCQ had just left the hospital. He was running through the streets of Solicor, noting the layout of the area automatically thanks to a habit acquired during his years of military training. After the recent events, the city-planet’s streets were almost deserted. In the absence of the usual crowd, the advertising holograms seemed to dominate the area. They splashed the walls and moving walkways with pale colors.

Concerned, Laorcq quickened his pace. Like Torg, he feared that some of the infected had survived the confrontation between Mallory and the Saharj gestalt. He stuck as much as possible to empty streets, avoiding the small winding alleys, almost tunnels, which were so common on Solicor, even if it meant a longer trip. He frequently saw police patrols that included both Gibrals and Xilfs. Wearing antigrav harnesses, they traveled between the buildings, jumping from one level to another without paying any attention to him.

As he walked, he thought. This series of events implied a set of much more serious facts. He was certain that the Saharj were not going to stop here. He had to talk to Hanosk: obviously the Vohrn could not maintain their apparent neutrality.

On the way, he came across EMTs who were busy collecting bodies, the remaining traces of the violence that had struck the city so brutally. Thinking about what would have happened to Solicor if the experiment hatched by the Saharj had worked gave him stomach cramps. His participation in the conflict between humans and Orcants had demonstrated to him just how much stupidity and suffering was caused by war. Combat on an overcrowded planet would be a bloodbath.

Mallory had acted impulsively and risked her life, but she had been right to do so. Obviously he wouldn’t tell her that: she might make a habit of it.

Laorcq put these thoughts aside. He had just arrived at an antigrav well, only to find that it wasn’t running. He looked around and spotted a metal door with a universal symbol of staircase. Good. Only about twenty flights of stairs. This is what I get for not exercising enough lately…

He pushed the door and began climbing. The rarely used stairwell was made of crude ceramic concrete. The uniform beige-grayness was interrupted only by large characters indicating the floor number and glyphs from non-human alphabets.

He climbed fifteen floors and stopped. A sound reached him, a plaintive moan reminiscent of a wounded animal. A nauseating odor of decomposing debris and bodily fluids caught in his throat. All senses alert, he climbed a few more steps and found himself on a landing.

A Gibral was slumped there, back to the wall and legs splayed out on the floor, giving the impression that he had succumbed to intense exhaustion and had needed to rest. He sat in a brown puddle. Laorcq came over and examined him while trying to ignore the stench assaulting his sinuses. The big blue cyclops had a glassy eye, and his head swayed slightly at the end of his long neck. The unintelligible mumblings began again, louder this time.

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