Expatria: The Box Set by Keith Brooke

Author:Keith Brooke [Brooke, Keith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 4

There were two messages from Decker. Both were tagged for anyone involved with the work on Expatria and the arrival of GenGen. Stopp called one up.

'Hi, everybody.' A trifacsimile of Decker leapt up in a false space beyond Stopp's screen. 'This is pretty heavy, OK? Reports are confused but we can safely say there's some kind of trouble in Newest Delhi, something pretty big. There's fighting reported from Joplin and Arro-Mackie quarters, some kind of rally in the central marketplace. No clear reports from the Primal Manse. I don't know if it's an attack or an uprising or just a riot. I guess it could be any combination of those things. Or something different, who knows?' Decker shrugged and Stopp wished he would get on with the message. 'Best thing we can do is get down there and see what's going on, keep in touch with each other through ArcNet, try and trace whoever we can.'

As he spoke, ArcNet scrolled up a footnote: 27 Activated Trifacsimile-Links. It flipped to 28 as Stopp read.

'Good luck.' And Decker was gone, his space taken up by the screen and part of an interior partition.

She called up the second message, Decker again. The time signal showed that this was logged three minutes before the previous one. 'Hi, everybody. Just drawing your attention to the fact that ArcNet's updated the transit projections. I think it's time we consulted Prime Edward about some kind of response—can anybody get through to him?'

Decker vanished and Stopp called for the update. Arrival estimate for Terran vessel: Holy Corporation of GenGen. Three days (symmetrical error: eighteen hours).

Stopp's heart was racing and she couldn't slow it. She didn't want to slow it. They were almost here! The error set arrival at any time from 24 to 60 hours—that would be only one Terran day, at the shortest. She wondered if GenGen would keep Terran or Expatrian time when they arrived.

Forty-two hours.

She checked the time, then called up the list of channels. A footnote scrolled up, telling her that there were thirty-six activated links with Newest Delhi alone. That was close to the highest number of angels any one part of Expatria had ever seen.

She scanned the list, recognised a few of the names. There was no Sukui or Mathias or Chet Alpha, they must all be in link already.

As she was deciding who to join up with the footnote flipped back to thirty-five and she saw Jeanna Lüngstrom's name enter the list. Quickly, she spoke the name into her mike.

A picture slid up. A gloomy interior, a narrow window-slit in thick stone walls. Jeanna nodded to the camera and prevented the trifax from materialising. 'It might be safer if there are less of us for them to spot,' she said.

'Here,' Jeanna continued, 'have a look out.' The view moved across to the window-slit. They were high up, something like two or three storeys. The surrounding buildings were low and grey, constructed out of mismatched boards and patched with tarpaulin. Closer, there was an open area, some kind of square or parade ground.

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