Maxwell's Demon Ch. 15-21

"Good luck then," Greg said, walking northeast, away from the harbor.

A blast came from the docks by the metallic loading bridges. A jib crane mount gave way to the force causing the explosion, and the crate it held crashed down into the cargo hold of the freighter below. Bright green flames splashed onto the deck above as the powdered metallic ore ignited into a fast moving flame front.

Howls, like a demon and wolf in unison, poured from workers on the deck; their bodies were engulfed in flames. Three dived into the water beneath. A siren rang from a tower in the south of the harbor. Dozens of Telluki in bright green chain mail merged into the open area. A group of them gathered around a tall brown cylinder at the edge of the water. They pushed at massive metal bars, like children spinning a merry-go-round, until the entire structure spun around in repeated circles.

Brown cloth hoses a few meters from the device spewed water, and Centaurans of all shapes and sizes rushed to direct the streams to the flames aboard the freighter.

Benue rushed to the pavilion. "It is as we feared, our harbor is no longer free from terrorist attacks. The war has reached our shores. We should go," he said, guiding the remaining crew toward the main strip they arrived on.

Jennifer turned behind her to take one last look each at John and Greg, fading into the distance, dissolving into the unknown. "Goodbye then, that's what you men do best, isn't it? I'm not a runner -- like you, Dad," she mumbled, and yanked the youthful photo of herself from Sarah's hand, wishing polycyanolucent paper was destructible, because she would have ripped it to shreds.

** Chapter 19: The face of Adir **

Jennifer stood in front of Mayana's estate, admiring the dancing green waves of ionized plasma, the aurora borealis on steroids that was the Proxima night. There was a beam of yellow artificial light in the distance. She knew that color; it was the same as the searchlight that found them in Anukina, alone in a cold valley surrounded by dead kyapu. It seemed like yesterday.

Mion and Kleok appeared as if they had been observing from one of the higher walls of the building.

"This is quite unexpected; we should go inside right away," Mion said.

"What is it?" Jennifer said, as Mion pulled her along.

"It's Adir. She was expected to discuss your healing ointment, but this is early."

"Is this something she does to keep you on your toes?"

"More likely it does not bode well. A declaration of war may have been issued with Northlights, and she comes to see where we stand. Come quickly inside."

Jennifer glanced back and forth as her pace was unwillingly accelerated inside the estate. There were at least ten large females wearing all black, with dark red inverted V patterns painted on chain mail armor arriving from the motorcade. Six of the females in armor fanned out around the outside of the building, taking up stations, two on each wall. Inside the first enclosed courtyard, Mayana rushed in, dressed in a formal green outfit. It featured a high collar which covered her chin.

On the corner table with its charge and access panel unfolded sat the compute fabric which ran the crew's ad-hoc networks and language models. It'd been left to charge during the daylight cycles. She approached the table to close the access panels which would render the device little more than a box, much less conspicuous amid the new visitors.

"You should not be present yet, you may disturb the discussions," Mion said, finishing his shoving of her entire body out of the room before she could close the access panels.

In the main estate rooms, Jennifer paced irregularly, worried about the compute node left in the courtyard. She pulled out her datapad to check if it had finished charging. It had, and she realized that with its access panel open, she could use the audio and video circuits of the module. She walked to a corner and watched what was transpiring in the courtyard that Mion had rushed her out of with such concern.

She could see the entire room on the datapad. The events reminded her of a 20th century mafia movie. Everyone that was important needed muscle following them around, and it was clear the purpose of the four females who followed the delegate of Adir, as well as the two standing at the opposing corner of the room which kept an eye on Mayana.

Mayana bowed her head into the high collar of her outfit such that her entire muzzle was hidden behind it. She greeted the stranger. As with the clothing, the greeting was unique, unseen from any Centauran before.

The stranger spoke an untranslatable word followed by Mayana's name.

"Thank you, Adir," Mayana said. "You are early, and you bring soldiers to my estate. Are you concerned for your security in my city? This has never been an issue before."

"Do not be alarmed. This is for both of our protection. I'm sure you can appreciate during these volatile times of piracy, the recent harbor attacks, and the pending war with Northlights, that we cannot be certain what ships are in port these cycles. We must be vigilant at all times," the face of Adir said. Jennifer was reminded it was not the real Adir, that she would only be a delegate as Mayana said. Was the real Adir a human?

The face of Adir approached Mayana. She wore a sweeping royal robe, bright purple indoors, which fascinated Jennifer, since all she could see was black in the Proxima light outdoors. Adir was the first overweight Centuaran she'd seen. Large, even by Centauran female standards, she carried the extra weight on her hips and legs. She looked like an overweight female wrestler in costume from some vintage Earth sport.

"Please prepare a private chamber for us. I would like to talk to this foreigner," Adir said, barely making the effort to address Mayana.

"I'll not be ordered around in my dwellings," Mayana growled.

"You'll be spoken to exactly as I speak. It is you who contacted the face of Adir. I will see to your business with her. Appoint me well, or I can assure you whatever it is you desire will not be afforded to you."

Mayana made a guttural sound, but then appeared to reset her expectations and went to a table in the room which had native drinks on it. She offered the face of Adir a drink.

"Of course. It is clear to me now why Adir sent you. Only one as wise as you would be able to oversee such an important business transaction as the one I propose.

Earlier you spoke of the war with Northlights. What if you could heal all of your soldiers, return them to battle in a fraction of the time Northlights could. Such an ability would quickly turn the tide of any conflict in your favor."

"Yes, yes. I was told of the claims of this magical ointment you possess, but how can I be sure of its properties?"

"I have sent you the witness of two miners who were healed by what were surely fatal injuries. Have they not convinced you with the sincerity of their words, and the observability of their deep scars?"

Above the courtyard, along a narrow walkway like a medieval battlement wall, where the fifteen meter long green flags hung that adorned the front wall of Mayana's palace, a well placed crossbow bolt took out the guard loyal to Mayana standing watch upon the access stairs. Her lifeless body was drug away by two Centaurans with dark red inverted V's clearly visible on the chain mail armor they wore.

"It is my judgment that Adir would require a more personal demonstration of its effect," the face of Adir said, and with a gesture of her hand, one of her soldiers stationed at the doorway let loose a crossbow bolt that pierced through the upper left shoulder of Mayana. She spun, spitting and howling a tumultuous string of Centauran curses, then ordered her own guards to attack.

Mayana's guards killed the first of two that were Adir's attachment before they could defend themselves. The limp body of Adir's dying soldier was supported from collapsing to the floor by a crossbow bolt partially embedded in chainmail armor. The blunt of a heavy blade, driven through her abdomen, was retrieved by Mayana's guard.

Mayana's graceful form dropped to the ground on her knees. The face of Adir drove the claws of her hand into Mayana's wounded shoulder.

The second of Mayana's guards ran to help her, but made only three steps before the two snipers from Adir's forces on the battlement wall above unleashed their crossbow bolts into her.

"Stop! If you wish to see your beloved Clan leader survive," the face of Adir said to the remaining guard loyal to Mayana who was crouched in a defensive position. She could no longer help Mayana, but also could not be struck down by the snipers above.

"Bring this Lani to me and see that it brings plenty of this magic healing ointment. If it works as you say, then your Clan leader will experience a miraculous recovery from this grievous wound," the face of Adir said, twisting her claw into the bleeding shoulder, "Or... she will die on the journey to Mainlights and be thrown into the sea."

Jennifer clipped the datapad into her flight belt, gasping for air, then ran. She ran to the main estate rooms.

"Sarah, we have to leave... now," she whispered.

"But why? You said we needed to find a patron to establish some financial footholds, that I was to work on manufacturing the healing gel. Didn't we just get all that?"

"We'll find another patron. Pack what you can. Pack like you were running for your life."

"I don't understand," Sarah said, confused.

"I'll take care of you," Jennifer said, lifting her up, holding her hand.

"Benue, could you take me outside. I want to show Sarah the fountains?" Jennifer said, briskly heading toward the east and rear entrance of the estate.

"But she's seen them. I showed her yesterday."

"I just want to go outside. I'll give you a chance to win this back, next time we play cards," Jennifer said, holding the hand carved Lani figurine she'd won from him playing cards in Anukina.

"That's fair," Benue said, turning around, away from the sleeping chambers hallway.

The farthest eastern room of the building led to another open courtyard. Inside the courtyard were two fountains powered by electric pumps which Mayana was very proud of. They burbled spouts of water, like something you would see at an American retro-wedding on Earth. A waist high wall of a width Jennifer didn't recall surrounded the courtyard. There were stone benches on the north and south perimeter, adjacent to the wall. Beyond the courtyard were the alien looking centipede trees as Greg had called them, strange hoops of wood, always anchored at two places into the ground.

One of the guards Adir brought with her stood outside the door leading to the courtyard, twirling her green crossbow as if it were a baton, and not the weapon it was. When she heard them approaching, she turned and stepped toward the door threateningly with her crossbow.

"What business do you have outside?"

"I wish to sit at the fountain of hope with these two. If you have issues with that, discuss it with Mayana," Benue said.

"Fine, but you may not leave the compound without Adir's consent."

The estate was shaped like a cross who's head pointed to the east. Two more of Adir's guards were posted outside, one each at the northeast and southeast corners of the cross.

"You are the strangest female I've ever met, but I like you," Benue said to Jennifer.

A guard from inside the estate came to the doorway, and spoke to the guard with the green crossbow. It was difficult to understand what they said, but the intention seemed to be: You are ordered to replace the guard on the northeast corner.

Jennifer walked toward the northern fountain and pretended to idly look into it. The guard on the northeast exterior corner, seeing they were to be relieved, started walking toward the front of the building, instead of the back as Jennifer might have expected. Green crossbow guard and her boss were still discussing the shift change in the doorway.

Jennifer gave Benue the carved Lani figurine she'd won from him in Anukina, placing it into his hand. "You shouldn't like me, Benue. I'm the worst kind of animal that will ever walk on this planet."

"Sarah, run!"

Jennifer ran toward the north wall and went to leap the fence but immediately regretted not remembering how wide it was, that and the goddamn gravity on this planet. Her right toe caught the trailing edge of the wall and her face planted into the brown moss surface of Proxima b with a skull rattling impact.

"Growl! I said not to leave the compound," Green crossbow guard said, running toward the fence.

Using humans as a yardstick, Jennifer knew the Telluki were formidable. They could easily overpower her, but she'd worked enough with them in the clinic and mines to know she could outpace the best of them, even in Proxima gravity.

Sarah ran, and had the good sense not to leap the fence. She stepped onto the stone bench adjacent to the wall and prepared to pommel over the wall like a gymnast -- but she wasn't going to make it. Green crossbow guard raised her bow and took aim. Jennifer had seen the larger crossbow rifles fired plenty of times in Anukina, they were deadly, and their ammo replenishable, a luxury she didn't have.

She spit moss from her mouth and shook her head, trying to clear the echoes ringing in her skull. One shot was all she had to save a life she may have condemned to death in the first place. It shouldn't be Sarah's time to die. She took aim and fired an SX4 round at Green crossbow guard, directly in her head. The guard dropped. They die as easily as we do, Jennifer thought, and they're a hell of a lot easier to hit than those fucking kyapu in the mountains.

The silenced SX4 may have been a strange sound to these aliens, but Boss guard wasn't stupid; she understood exactly what just happened. Boss guard ran to the northern fountain and crouched behind it.

Jennifer ran behind the trunk of the first centipede tree she saw, taking it for cover, followed by Sarah. She could see a guard standing watch at the southeast exterior corner of the cross. The silenced SX4 hadn't alerted her; the ceaseless westerly wind likely covered the sound of her shot, but that didn't matter anymore when Boss guard started howling. Jennifer took the element of surprise and stepped around the centipede tree to take a shot at the guard who was now running toward her position. She missed.

A loud cracking sound struck the tree near Jennifer's head. A baseball sized piece of bark flew from it. Boss guard had discharged her firearm the minute she saw Jennifer's hand extend for a shot. The bolt was embedded deep in the alien wood, and Jennifer heard the click of another being loaded.

She fired a cover shot at the stone fountain and told Sarah to run, making her way for the next centipede tree. Jennifer didn't know what lay to the east of Mayana's estate. She was beginning to see as she approached: a hill, or a drop off. She reminded herself how much faster things fell in Proxima gravity -- things like a human, down a cliff.

She turned to fire on the new guard who was closing from their previous position, the one she'd missed earlier. Jennifer had beaten her, and was already hidden behind the centipede tree, but new guard hadn't made it to cover yet. Jennifer fired. She hit. The guard howled, unsure what to make of the weapon that went through her armor so easily. Black-green blood pooled around the guard's hand as she held it against her chest. Jennifer fired again where a human's stomach would be, and the guard dropped to the ground with a guttural growl, clutching its abdomen, unable to breathe from blood filling its lungs.

Their escape route seemed impassable. There was a centipede tree with one end on top of the hill. They always had two ends, right?

"We have to jump over that hill. Use that tree. They won't follow us. Greg told me they're terrible climbers," Sarah said.

"OK!" Jennifer said. They both ran for the tree.

What previously looked like a cliff, was a cliff. Like something she'd seen traveling the United States called the devil's postpile, vertical columns of rocks that looked like posts falling from a dilapidated stone fence.

The height wasn't unmanageable, but an unplanned fall in Proxima gravity would break an ankle or leg. She snapped her SX4 retainer and slid along the mossy covered bark of the tree's trunk, hugging it like a koala bear. It was easy going until the point where the centipede tree inevitably turned back to make root again, horizontally, into the side of the cliff.

Jennifer looked down. She estimated it was three meters to an embankment. Her arms were burning from holding on so tightly. She needed to generate momentum by swinging her body to clear the jagged rocks at the bottom -- she couldn't just jump. She dropped her legs into the air and kicked off, swinging front to back before her arms gave out. She jumped, tucking herself into a ball, and rolled backwards when she hit the ground.

Jennifer eyed the top of the cliff warily. Why hadn't Boss guard appeared to attack?

"I... I can't do it, Jennifer," Sarah yelled, holding onto the tree trunk. "I'm going to fall."

"You have to kick off, Sarah; there's rocks at the base. Hurry, before they fire on us!"

Sarah leapt in panic, kicking wildly away from the rocks. She had no tumbling motion and was heading toward the rocky base with the grace of a cannonball dive. Jennifer stepped forward to catch and collapse Sarah's legs, yanking her away from the rocks and rotating her own trunk with as much force as she could. They both hit the ground, narrowly missing the rocks, and rolled like children playing logs down a grassy hill, except this was a deadly game, not for children.

"What was that all about? We can never go back there now, or anywhere. What were you thinking?" Sarah yelled.

"Do you know the way to the harbor from here?"

"There's no easy way. We have to go north, along this embankment until we find a place to cross this canal."

The abundant oxygen of Proxima b offered a small trade for the higher gravity, but even still, Jennifer's legs were on fire, and they both panted while catching their breath.

"Why... didn't... they... follow... us?" Sarah asked in broken words.

"I... I... I think Adir knows what we are; I think we're more valuable alive than dead. Maybe they did follow us and they're just not attacking. It's a good time to leave," Jennifer said, pulling the printed metal card John gave them from her pack.

"He said to find the ship in port that matched. I assume he meant the flags they're flying, there, that one, in the third berth from the south," Sarah said. "I've never seen the docks so quiet."

"Well, we've never been here at the equivalent of 3am before. Come on. On the double."

It was a short ship with little freeboard, like ships of old Earth, such as the Monitor. There were covered doors along the exterior, their function unclear. They were too high to load and unload cargo. She couldn't see the vessel's draft through the poorly lit water. It was three decks tall, maybe. Six crew worked around the perimeter, releasing lines from moorings and adjusting external hatches. It resembled a submarine in some ways, but Jennifer noticed many seams across various openings; she doubted it could submerge.

A uniformed Telluki female, clad in oranges and yellows stood near the only gangway to the vessel. A steel blade hung from her side. She turned and began to walk toward the ship. They were leaving; this was the last instant there would be a path from the dock to this unknown vessel.

"Water!" Jennifer yelled. She didn't know why she chose that word. It seemed the most innocuous thing she could say. The female deckhand turned to face their approach, and when they were close enough snatched the metal contact card Jennifer was waving around as if its mere sight was an obscenity. She eyed them both up and down, then shoved them onboard.