Chapter 53

The other ship. Vash glanced through the windows of the bridge where Agone had pointed. He watched as Livio's face fell and became an expression of ill distress.

"Now, gentlemen, if you'll excuse me, I have appointments elsewhere."

"You're not going anywhere." Livio snapped as Agone rose to his feet. The plant gazed at him with amused condescension.

"As powerful as you are, young man, you do not have that power."

Livio's eyes widened in alarm.

"Vash! Grab him!"

Vash was moving before Livio yelled, but neither the warning nor his movements were fast enough. They collided awkwardly in the space Agone had been and clung to each other as they staggered around to get their balance. The man had vanished.

"After him!" Livio roared. Staggering and pushing at each other they sprinted away from the bridge.

"What the hell did he do?" Livio demanded as they skipped down stairs faster than the elevators could take them.

"Short range teleport. These Terran plants shouldn't be able to do it." Vash complained. It bothered him a great deal that both Agone and Teres had managed it, Knives had only been able to do it with the full fused entity. How much power could those two access?

"Can you?" Livio asked hopefully.

"No." Vash admitted. "Knives did it once."

There was a long silence from Livio. Vash found himself contemplating the sheer amount of power that took. Did the independent plants they had drained have that kind of power? Livio seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

"If they have done anything to my kids they will wish only Razlo came to meet them."

Vash glanced back at Livio. There was an incandescent fury in his eyes, though they were clear and fully in control. Vash felt a shudder run through him; he had seen that look on some people. It was what happened when one crossed a good man and that good man went out to seek justice. There was no malice, righteous indignation or revenge. It was a simple meting out of justice.

There was no reasoning with people like that. Agone and his cronies had crossed a line, and Livio would go after them no matter what he said.

They exited the ship into a maelstrom of dust, screams, gunshots and mayhem.

Livio grabbed his arm. He saw where the man pointed. An abandoned jeep lying on its side. Perhaps it would still be okay. They both heaved the car so that it rocked, but it took several attempts and them jamming things between the bodywork and the ground before they could tip it over. Livio opened the hood and took a moment to inspect it.

"It seems okay." He said dubiously then clambered up into the driver's seat and turned the ignition.

"Seems?" Vash queried as the car backfired several times before starting then sounded like a thunderous belching monster.

"No silencer and let's see if this works." Livio mused and leaped out of the seat. He leaned into the engine and after several sharp cusses from him, the noise quieted minutely.

"All sparkplugs firing now. Let's go."

Vash clung to the passenger window and squinted into the dust haze through which Livio was driving. Even with his glasses on he could not see much, perhaps Livio's eyes were differently augmented? He had never thought to ask.

There was so much he had never thought to ask. He wanted to know what the Teran's were building here. Another ship, he could understand that. But why kidnap independent plants and drain them? Surely, the purpose of plants was to have a resource that spent itself out over years rather than a very limited time such as what one of those batteries could hold? What was it that required such a powerful boost?

As they drove a dark shadow loomed up to their left, and as they drew closer in the haze it became a canyon wall. Livio gave a satisfied grunt as he found the road and put on still more speed. The jeep was shuddering, but holding together. Then as the light dimmed to their left and the outline of a very different build of Terran ship appeared. Vash felt as if someone had punched him in the gut. It was not a Terran ship. It was one of the old Seeds ships, though now so heavily modified he could barely recognise it. What had they done? What were they doing? Did they think a crashed ship was space worthy after all this time?

"Vash, what the hell is that?" Livio demanded.

"A ship!" Vash called back.

There was silence.

"Strangest ship I ever saw." Livio muttered.

Vash glanced over to his friend then saw what he meant. Ahead of them in the haze was a dense darkness and peculiarly, the edges of the darkness were brilliant lights.

"I have no idea." Vash said honestly.

There was gunfire and shouting ahead. Livio floored the accelerator and stood up in his chair to try see what was going on ahead. The road came to an abrupt end at a gate. The gate and the fence it closed were made of wire and almost impossible to see in the hazy dust. This had not stopped the previous raiders from driving the gate down and forging their own road. Livio slammed on the breaks as they skidded over the gate and ploughed through the sand to were other vehicles were overturned. He swung around them and drove at a slower pace, following the footpath through the dunes. The car stalled half way up a dune and Livio killed the engine.

"We can run faster than this." He said in disgust and sprang out of the car. Vash headed for the top of the dune and Livio sprinted for the base where the gravelly ground was better for running.

Vash stood and stared out at the great darkness before him. It was as he stood there that he felt it rather than heard it. A note so low he felt it in his bones and in the vibration of the sand beneath his feet. It sounded for a moment, then everything was still again. He shuddered to rid himself of the sensation.

He sprinted down the dune to find Livio staggering along as if drunk.

"Livio!" He hailed the man and then grabbed him around the shoulders when he almost overbalanced while turning. Livio pushed him away and collapsed to his knees and threw up.

"What, in the nine hells, was that?" Livio spat and wiped at his mouth.

"Some kind of deterrent?" Vash hazarded, it had been eerie for him, but clearly quite effective on Livio.

"No kidding." Livio said snidely and shoved himself to his feet. "Ugh." He shook his head and squared his shoulders. "What're we lingering here for? Let's get some distance in! Run!"

They made it to the dunes that surrounded the lights. Huge daylight spots mounted on vastly tall poles bolted into the ground. Livio was being somewhat more cautious and lay on his stomach with binoculars. Vash crouched down beside him. Livio spat a curse and handed the binoculars to him as if he had seen enough. A milling crowd of people stood on what seemed to be a vast launch apron. The darkness above was caused by vast swathes of netting that had been spread across the canyon. Someone had been hiding this project from the planet's spy satellites.

To the left side of the launch apron stood the reconditioned ship. It was quarter the size of the original Seeds ship, but the alterations, now that he looked closely at them, weren't so slipshod as he had first imagined. Someone knew shipbuilding. He gazed up at the ship, realising that for the first time, No Man's Land had a chance at sending some other message back to Earth other than "help", though he was fairly sure that this is what the return of such a patched ship would relay.

Livio nudged him.

"Isn't that Meryl?"

They both looked where he pointed. Vash focussed the binoculars, and for a bewildered moment chased picture through the abandoned crates and trucks towards the centre of the commotion. He caught something white and stopped. Oh man, it was Meryl, crouched behind a forklift. Her partner Milly was sitting in the driver's seat, aiming a stun gun claw.

"Leave them alone." Vash urged. The last thing he needed was an argument as to the best thing to do.

"Er." Livio pointed again and Vash saw Knives crouched beside Calor, she had Chronica's rocket launcher on her shoulder.

"No!" Vash sprinted towards them, tumbling down the dune in his haste.

But he was too late. He saw Agone emerge from the ship and Knives rose to his feet at the same time.


Agone strode down the ships ramp with Teres in his wake. The milling people divided into three groups. One lot saluting Agone, the other two pointing at each other and arguing loudly.

Agone paused and glanced at them as if surprised.

"You're still here? I seem to remember suggesting that you leave."

"We heard what you're doing here." One group called.

"We don't care," the other group shouted them down. "Just pay us what you owe us!"

"I know some of those people." Livio murmured, startled. "Engineers with the Eye of Michael."

"We want to go back to Earth, not die on this forsaken world."

"Take them, and give us their share too!"

"Is that why the Eye of Michael has been so quiet of late, they were building this?" Livio sounded grudgingly awed.

Agone turned away as if he had not heard the engineers, and walked over to the group of soldiers who were holding a man chained and hooded.

"You owe us our wages. We can sabotage the ship as easily as build it."

Agone halted in his tracks then. He turned slowly, his eyes cold. Without a further word he splayed his right hand out and it was all Vash could do to catch the speed at the way the blades scythed out from his body. It took the people several seconds to realise they were dead. Vash sprinted, he had never imagined Agone to be another Knives. He had also seriously misjudged the distanced of half an ile that the binoculars covered so easily.

It was then that Knives himself walked forward, slowly clapping his hands together. He walked through the pooling blood without getting any on his white boots. He still, now somewhat mockingly, clapped his hands. Once he was free of the blood he brought his hands together in a final clap and smiled mirthlessly at Agone.

"You." Agone spat suddenly incandescent with rage. He flung out blades faster than Vash's eye could follow them. Knives stood still, though he blurred slightly as he did. Vash rubbed his eyes to find Knives still standing there, but now Agone was clutching his arm, his eyes widening in horror and pain as blood dripped off his fingers.

"Angel shot, I believe this stuff is called." Knives said conversationally. "I also am told it works with greater effect the stronger the plant."

"You bloody murderer!" Agone screamed at him, then baulked as he tried to use his power and pain sizzled through him. He charged Knives, blades scything out.


Vash staggered to a halt at the edge of the apron, watching the scene unfold with horror. Livio grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Fight your fight." He muttered. "I'm making use of this distraction."

Vash tore himself away from the fight. Knives was holding his own. He did not know how Knives managed it as depleted of power as he was, but he gave as good as he got. He sprinted after Livio who darted up the ramp into the ship.

"You sure about leaving your brother?" Livio asked reluctantly, as if he wished Knives dead but did not want to let on.

"Knives is up to something." Vash muttered. "I still don't know what it is and I really don't like that."

They glanced at the passages as if that would give them their answers.

"Where do we go?" Livio hissed.

"Power plants. They're in the lower levels of the ship, if this was built according to Seeds design." Vash took off down the passage. They had entered at the very lowest level, so they had to proceed upwards.

They were very few crew wandering the passage, so they took those they encountered out with ease. Vash was astonished when he discovered that Rem's override code still worked on the ship. They must be running the whole system on the ancient Seeds programs. He marvelled again at the fortune and misfortune that he and Knives had encountered by being born on the mother ship. It helped when they needed to lock people away into cabins or shut down entire passages.

"Ya'know." Livio mused, watching him do this. "I always thought they were exaggerating when they said you guys were from the Great Fall. As if they wanted you plants to have this mythic existence. Only, it's true, isn't it?"

Vash gave him a look, as if to say not to believe everything he heard, and nodded ahead.

"Those are the power rooms."

Livio took out his guns and marched forward as Vash keyed the doors open. Livio's words caught in his throat with a gargled gasp. Not only was the room a vast orb plant chamber, the rings of orbs rising one above the other until they blurred with distance, but on the floor in rigid glass plant containment units were chained six independent plants. The two opposite the door were Jasmine and Douglas. They were taller now, were they humans they would to be in their early to mid teens. Jasmine leaped to her feet and splayed both hands on the glass. She was shouting something, though nothing could be heard. Vash grinned crookedly at his friend as Livio recognised the word she was saying over and over again. "Daddy."


"Look! There go Mister Vash and Mister Livio."

Meryl tore her eyes away from Knives and Agone, privately hoping they both would finish each other off.

Milly pointed at the entrance to the ship. Two men, one in a red coat, the other in a black cape and hat were sneaking on board the ship. What were they after? Vash had the unerring talent of being in the right place in the worst circumstances. Ugh, this could be such a mess, what was more important than Knives? She remembered the twins then, and felt ill.

"We've got to help them rescue the kids." Milly said as another figure separated from the crowd and sauntered over to the ships ramp.

It was Teres. Oooh! Meryl thought furiously. You are not getting anywhere near my friends!

Milly must have had the same thought, as she bounded out of the forklift and sprinted across to the ship.


Livio ran over to the containment units in which the twins were trapped. They were nothing like plant orbs, which were beautiful and elegant. No these were glass prisons, and the thick rings clamped about the necks and wrists of their occupants were like shackles. The only difference was that these shackles had thick cables running from them. Vash walked slowly behind him. Livio had darted around the centre of the chamber and on to the twins, but he stopped. Unshielded and open to the room at large was a pedestal on which hung a neck collar. Although instead of having conduits out, it only had those coming in. Vash shuddered at the idea and glanced upwards at the orb plants, from which the conduits would draw their power. He could feel their anxiety and worry pulsing through the room. He could see that some recognised him, and while not being reassured at his presence, they impressed on him his duty to protect them. He gazed at their beautiful forms and smiled sadly, sorry they had been caught up in a war not theirs, but a war their power enabled. He brushed his hand over the neckpiece and curled his fingers in on themselves feeling defiled. A faint pulse of energy had warmed his hand, but it was not all the pure energy the orb plants used. He shook his hand out trying to get rid of the sensation. With the clean warm power he knew, a searing hot power flowed slowly as if it were only then waking to strength. It was reluctant, and with just his brief touch had seemed to flow a little easier. Somehow, a plants presence was a catalyst to this machine. Vash turned away and hurried after Livio, now desperate to get the twins out. That strange awakening power was far stronger than any power he had ever known. Even his own power under Knives' control had been nothing on this. What would a plant do with such power, were such a plant able to handle it without having their life seared from them by the through passage of power?

By the time Vash reached him, Livio had wound the screw of the pressure door open and was picking the locks on Jasmine's neck collar. Vash set to work on the door of Doug's prison. He hauled the door open and hurried over to the boy.

"Vash." He growled through his teeth, his body tense with fear. "You need to destroy this place."

Vash flicked his gaze upwards and Doug's expression snagged with helpless agony at the fate of his sister plants.

"Just get this off me!" He begged shoving at the collar around his neck. "It lets you feel everything!"

Vash knew that idea all too well. The setup was peculiar, but it was essentially the same as the fused entity. One plant would know the thoughts and intents of all, and with that came the misfortune of one plant being able to control the entire entity. The instant he touched the collar, he felt the odd surge of the sticky reluctant power again and scowled at the ring on the pedestal. Doug gagged.

"Vash, get me out!" He panted when he could speak again.

He shoved his thumb into the pressure lock holding the collar closed and forced all the reluctant power out through it. The skin over his thumb cracked and morphed with the surge. The neck collar clicked open and Doug pulled his head out so fast he skinned his chin.

"Now these!" He shoved the shackles at Vash, shivering in panic.


Meryl followed Milly, and after back tracking and taking several wrong turns, they finally made it down to the plant room. They slipped inside and found not a room, but a chamber, soaring higher than they could see in the vapours generated in the interior of the ship, and sinking lower than they had imagined the ship was buried.

"I don't see anyone." Milly whispered, worried.

Meryl squinted downwards, she thought she had seen a movement.

"We need to get down there."

"It's a long way down." Milly leaned over the railing.

"Not that way!" Meryl pulled her back.

The elevator emerged into a passage of doors. Some were elevators and others thick ship doors which could be sealed against a hull breach. Meryl headed for the one closest to the plant chambers. The circular handle unlocked with a heart stopping clunk. After they had made sure no one had heard they eased the door open. They emerged in semi darkness, the room was filled with waist thick cable bundles, the only thing illuminated in the room were several complex switch boards.

"I think you found the back door." Milly whispered delightedly. "Good going Meryl!"

Meryl braced her foot on the wall and pulled the door closed behind them. Cautiously, she and Milly headed along the raised gantry ways between the cable routings. There was a humming murmur that increased as they approached the far end of the room. Several huge enclosed boxes seemed to be transformers of some type. Meryl wondered how a ships engine ran that they needed quite so much power. She remembered the tours of the city plants; they had had one of these devices. She then recalled the unusual bank of plants; no city had had quite so many.

They followed the gantry down a flight of metal stairs and across into a viewing chamber that overlooked the plant room. She sighed in relief. They were on the right floor, now they needed a way to get out.

"Miss Meryl!" Milly grabbed the back of her cloak, her voice squeaking in fright.

"What?" Meryl had her derringers out before spotting what Milly had seen. Teres. The plant was standing on the command platform at the far side of the room, bent over the consol. In the centre of the room stood a pedestal, and as they watched Teres adjust leavers and flip switches, it lit up and they could see the whole room now. The pedestal was clearly the centre of the power conduits, drawn down from the hundreds of orbs above them, and seven half domes containing reluctant prisoners. Meryl gasped as she recognised Doug and Jasmine in two of them, bound at the neck and wrists. They were sitting cross legged, watching Teres balefully. Had Vash and Livio got lost? It was then her eye was snagged by another movement. Livio crouched within a plant chamber on the far side of the room, picking the lock of the neck collar. The female independent plant he was helping had a grim expression on her face, her eyes focussed on Teres.

She then noticed Vash surreptitiously attempting to open the dome door of the plant opposite Teres. If Teres were to turn around, he would see him. However, the plant was too busy adjusting a neck collar that was attached to the command platform.

"We gotta help Mr Vash!" Milly declared, but Meryl was already moving. Whatever Teres was doing he had to be stopped.