Helix Wars by Eric Brown Read Free Book Online Page A

emergency hospital. There’s a city plan somewhere among the softscreen’s files. It’ll all become a little less confusing when you’ve been here a while.”
    The major indicated a red plastic walkway which led to a diaphanous dome. “And most importantly, the bar....” She glanced at her chronometer. “Your team’s due in any time now. You can get to know them over a drink.”
    The dome was split-level, its upper deck looking out over the spectacular jungle. Lan’malan led the way to the second level and they found a table near the curving inner membrane.
    They ordered refreshing qeer-wine – “As good as you’ll get anywhere on Mahkana,” the major said – and strips of pickled vegetable, a speciality of Kranda’s home canton.
    Kranda looked out over the makeshift city and the hectic activity. “I’m impressed,” she said, taking a long drink. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it. And you say it’s all in aid of routine inspection?”
    The major gave her an appraising glance. “And what else might it be in aid of?”
    “I don’t know. I’m mystified. An inspection of subterranean access points happens every twenty-five years. But you said they were last inspected ten years ago.”
    “That’s what the records show.” The major snapped a vegetable stick between big teeth.
    “And... if you don’t mind my saying... the personal attention of a major, the conducted tour... it’s all highly unusual.”
    Lan’malan smiled. “I can answer the last quite candidly. I like to get to know the people I appoint, the members of my team. It’s all very well reading personality reports compiled by others, accessing psych profiles of my team members – but there’s nothing like one-to-one contact to really get to know people. Does that answer your question?”
    Kranda smiled. “I think it does,” she said.
    “As for your earlier observations, I agree.” The major waved beyond the walls of the dome. “All this is... highly unusual, Yankari-Kranda. This does seem to me to be overkill.” She leaned forward. “But would you believe that I’m as much in the dark about it as you are?”
    Kranda opened her mouth, intending to say that she found that hard to believe, but stopped herself. That would be tantamount to accusing the major of lying... And though it was hard to believe that someone so high up might be in the dark, something in her manner convinced Kranda that she was telling the truth.
    Kranda sipped her ice-cold wine. “But you must have your suspicions?” she said.
    “I have, and I approached my superiors with them last week.”
    “And?”
    “And they were tight-lipped, to say the least.” Lan’malan gestured with a vegetable stick, before popping it between her teeth and crunching. “They gave nothing away.”
    “And those suspicions?”
    “When I first arrived here, I thought something major had occurred, some catastrophic cross-disciplinary breakdown – the malfunction of an entire world, right up from its engineering base to its eco-system. But when I looked closely... I realised that everything was functioning as it should be. It was a perfectly working world. So, why the presence of specialists in every scientific discipline here? Care to guess?”
    Kranda thought about it. “Okay, how about this: expansion? We’ve come to some kind of agreement with the humans and we’re expanding onto this world. It’s not that far from our respective homeworld, and...”
    She trailed off when she caught sight of the major’s expression. Lan’malan shook her head. “We don’t need to expand, Yankari-Kranda. Mahkana is hardly bursting at the seams.”
    “So...”
    Major Lan’malan was smiling, showing her big lower incisors. “I have a hunch, Yankari-Kranda. No more. I might be wrong...” She sipped her wine, reflecting, and then said, “What might account for all this sudden activity, centred on one world? Why the inspection, across all the disciplines?” She paused – and