Guardians of Paradise by Jaine Fenn Page A

transit. It’s about Serenein. The big secret, the whole reason the Sidhe set the place up—’ He looked at Nual, then Taro. ‘They’re selectively breeding boys with a certain … unusual talent. They can enter shiftspace at will.’
     
    ‘Why do they want these boys?’ asked Nual warily.
     
    Jarek cleared his throat. ‘Actually, I wondered if you might have an idea about that, given what happened when you first went into shiftspace alone.’
     
    ‘You think - you think this relates to the mind I sensed in the shift? The mind in your ship?’
     
    ‘Am I missing something here?’ asked Taro, looking between the two of them.
     
    ‘Jarek is referring to my problem with shiftspace. Did he tell you about that?’
     
    ‘Not really. He did tell me how he found you, on the ship where everyone’d gone gappy.’
     
    ‘That would be one way of putting it. We used to enter the shift in unity; I would mesh my will with my sisters to create our own island of sanity amidst the chaos. On the Judas Kiss I had no such support, and once in shiftspace my mind instinctively searched for another of my kind to save me from the void. I couldn’t help myself. And I found . . . There is a mind here, within the drive-column of this ship, and it has been here for many centuries, imprisoned, warped; driven mad. I . . .’ She looked down at her hands. ‘I knew then that broken creature was the force that powers your ship through shiftspace, but I did not say. Perhaps I should have.’
     
    ‘So—’ Taro looked at her. ‘So you’re saying there’s a boy from Serenein hidden on board this ship, and that’s what makes us go into shiftspace?’
     
    ‘Not exactly,’ said Jarek. ‘Transit-kernels were invented by the Sidhe, and they’re very hard to make - hence the rarity of shiftships. They’re sealed black boxes hidden deep within the drive-column. Trained engineers can’t do much more than check the interface between the kernel and the rest of the ship’s systems, because if they fuck with the box then the kernel stops working - or worse, blows up spectacularly. They say one set off a chain-reaction with a beacon at a hubpoint once. Thousands of people died. That whole system was lost.’
     
    ‘Where do these transit-kernels come from?’ asked Taro.
     
    ‘A handful of companies, operating under great secrecy, supply them to the shipyards. But now I believe the minds within them come from Serenein. The locals send the boys who make the grade up into orbit, thinking they’re ascending to Heaven, but what actually happens is that the Sidhe pick them up. That’s why the Setting Sun went to Serenein.’
     
    ‘The sick fuckers,’ said Taro angrily. ‘So where do they take them?’
     
    ‘I don’t know. But the pilot will, and that’s why we need to wake him up. But first, I have to get some rest. And so do you.’
     
    Nual told them both she’d be fine; she just needed time to think, so Taro used the spare cabin. When he lay down he buried his head in the pillow, trying to catch her scent, but it just smelled musty. He slept badly, with more nasty dreams, this time of being slowly walled up inside a tiny room, paralysed and unable to do anything but watch as the last chinks of light disappeared and the air grew thick and hard to breathe.
     
    Jarek was already up and about when he awoke. Over the meal that Taro decided to call breakfast he asked where they were now.
     
    ‘Xantier. It’s a hubpoint.’
     
    ‘Is there much to see here? The last hub we visited was pretty boring.’
     
    ‘Hub stations usually are when it comes to sightseeing, though Xantier’s a hollow-earth, so it’s a bit more interesting than most. They’re where I do most of my business though.’ He pulled a wry face. ‘Thanks to the assorted bribes and fines I’ve had to pay recently, I need to sell those Old Earth artefacts quickly, so we’re going to have to stay here a while, at least long enough for messages from potential