Chapter 49: The Planet of the Xenos

Accustomed to the smooth and precise arrivals of the Halcyon, the Wau felt slowness and confusion when his Ozy, worn out, unpainted metallic gray, purchased on the Lennox black market, emerged from Drift into the distant orbit of Booz - a yellow dwarf, vaguely immersed in a nebula that gave deep space a uniquely greenish-blue hue.

His first attempt at approaching the Brotherhood had failed: posing as a freight ship on the route to Ur, he had been boarded by two pirates. Had he been clumsy? Overconfident? Whatever the case, after some threats exchanged, they had fled. The legend that they used brain fluid from Booz Owls to foresee the future might have had some truth to it.

His second card to play was Lucky’s tale: according to him, the Brotherhood’s headquarters was near swamps where Owls could be found, on Booz.

An Endymion was patrolling the orbit: the Hades. A motionless mass of dark steel above the planet and beneath its many dancing moons, it stood like an ominous guardian. An operator from the Hades contacted the Ozy:

- “Ozymandias arriving in the orbit of Booz, please identify yourself, your passengers and cargo, and the purpose of your journey.”

The Wau brought up a fake portrait on the communications terminal, generated on the fly by his AIs.

- “Captain Kalina of the Ozymandias Vayu, registered at Lennox. No cargo. No passengers. I’m looking for work on Booz - passenger or freight transport. Worst case, I’ll do a bit of tourism.”

- “Ozymandias Vayu, you do not have permission to latch onto Booz Prime. Please remain in orbit ten kilometers from our Endymion and await further instructions.”

The Wau complied. Once at the required distance, he established a connection with the Endymion’s internal communications network, and his AIs hacked it with some difficulty, given the military-grade security. He traced the signal back to the communications room where he identified his interlocutor, an androgynous individual named Klee, from whom he even obtained an image via an internal camera. Concentrating, he directed his psychic beam toward Klee, so he would come to the evident realization that the Ozymandias could very well descend to Booz Prime.

Meanwhile, other ships - Ravens - were entering Drift after having latched onto the orbital anchoring port.

Klee resumed contact:

- “Ozymandias Vayu, thank you for your patience. You may descend to Booz Prime.”

- “Order canceled,” shouted another voice over the channel.

- “Captain...”

- “Silence, officer, you are relieved of duty. Ozy Vayu, cease your psychic intrusion immediately or a storm of fire will rain upon your ship. Prepare for boarding by a squadron. They have orders to kill you if you show the slightest sign of hostility.”

Through the camera, the Wau identified the Captain who had spoken: Solstice - who, in one of those marvelous coincidences that bring two individuals together among billions, had once been Ada’s jailer. Gorylkin, avenging sun, everyone orbits around you ... Not the least bit worried, he took his time exploring Solstice’s psyche and cross-referencing it with AI data to reconstruct her background.

After disposing of Ada, Sol had obtained the position of second officer on the ship, using every possible means to get there, thanks to a new Fleet regulation requiring Psi officers. The Captain of the Hades, one Liupold, had told her how, after Aleph’s initial communication, he planned to give a speech to the crew proposing they retreat out of the aggressor’s range to prepare a counterattack. She had struck him down instantly with a fatal epileptic seizure, then, after reporting to the Aleph-submitted high command, had been promoted to Captain with congratulations from Aleph itself. Comfortable in her authority and in her ability to wield fear, she had resumed wearing her silver hairpins and rings while still donning the regulation uniform. Today, she was on Booz to supervise a team assigned to a “top secret project.” In her projections, she saw herself at Aleph’s side on Origin.

Out of creative options, the Wau unleashed a psychic blast that knocked out the entire crew, including the commandos approaching his ship in camouflage suits, and dove toward Booz.

Booz was a planet of verdant continents, with a single freshwater ocean and an inland sea, with no mountains and no ice caps either. In the wilder parts, a layer of cloud cover could be seen. The planet had two coastal cities a thousand kilometers apart: Booz Prime, an administrative center, relatively modern, located on the inland sea; and little Booz, commonly called Babylon or New Babylon, on the ocean coast. Booz in general, and Babylon in particular, although they were HS trading posts, had a population composed 90% of Xenos - a situation all the more remarkable given that the Xenos came from a thousand different worlds. Booz had many unknown villages, unmapped, sometimes invisible or imperceptible to humans, inhabited only by Xenos drawn by the presence of massive freshwater. In addition to the famous Owls, its ocean and sea - which mysteriously communicated - housed a creature resembling a primordial eel, blind, twenty kilometers long and half a kilometer high.

As the ship fell at maximum speed toward the planet, the Wau analyzed the topography. There was indeed a swampy expanse fifty kilometers from Babylon. At two kilometers in altitude, he ejected. The Ozy adjusted its course on autopilot to hide twenty meters below the surface of the nearby ocean, while the armored being dropped straight down, trying to slow his descent to traumatize the environment as little as possible. The impact was loud, and in the swamps, the Wau sank six meters deep until he touched solid ground beneath the mud. Beneath his feet, he felt the vibration of a strong current - the underground passage from the sea to the ocean, which surfaced somewhere around here and created the marsh. He rose with a single impulse to find himself, a giant covered in earth, among curious fish with legs, small floating gas-filled sacs, luminous insects, and featherless birds - reptilian, but capable of flight - whose screeching drove one mad. Booz’s nebulous sky, then in nighttime, yet tinting its moons gold, was half-obscured by large mineral formations that grew like trees.

He advanced in the direction opposite Babylon. Nearby, he thought he had seen, during his descent, a few rudimentary buildings.

His considerable weight made him sink into the mud. The worst terrain imaginable for someone heavy and two-legged. Each time he dropped ten or twenty meters to reach solid ground, he leapt again, creating a crater. In the end, he advanced by jumping from one mineral protrusion to another - living silicon, moving too slowly for the eye to perceive. From one of these great ridges, he spotted the constructions. No one visible here, but frightened psyches were emanating, and he let himself drop onto a patch of silicon torn from the surroundings. It was in this living mineral that three very poor houses had been built.

No door, just openings. A few decorative items, some worn clothing. Captured creatures were hanging from the ceiling, drying. Against a wall was a double partition behind which three people must have been hiding. He declared aloud: