V2 Chapter 126: The Ambitions of the Undying Trazyn
Under Admiral Villent's orders, the fleet set course for the Mandeville point at the system's edge.
The bridge of the Resolute remained busy. Naval officers confirmed headings, formations, and transport positions without pause. Tanith was falling away behind the fleet, that forest world pulled back from the edge of destruction, but there was no time to linger.
Duvette left the command bridge with Vakur and a second Salamander.
Once they were inside the lift shaft leading to the armament deck and he had confirmed no one was following, Duvette looked at Vakur.
"Vakur. Send two of your brothers to armament deck Containment Room Three." He kept his voice level. "Have them take position in the purification lock or the isolation observation chamber on the side and wait there. Don't let anyone outside see them."
Vakur's red lenses turned toward him.
"Concealed and ready?"
"There's something I want to confirm." Duvette said. "You and the other brother stay with me as normal. Stand outside the containment room door when we get there. I want someone to believe that every Salamander with me is visible."
The Salamander was silent for a moment, then issued a short command over the Chapter's internal channel.
Several minutes later, Duvette arrived outside armament deck Containment Room Three.
The room had originally been used for the temporary containment of battlefield salvage and contaminated samples. Two naval ratings stood guard at the heavy door. Inside, the space was divided into a main containment area, a purification lock, and a narrow isolation observation chamber.
Duvette left Vakur and the second Salamander standing at the door and walked in alone.
From outside, everything looked as it should.
Two Salamanders at the door. Only Duvette inside the containment room. Nobody knew that in the purification lock off to the side, two more Salamanders had already cut their external identification lights, weapons unlocked, waiting for his signal.
The containment room's lighting ran cold. Old score marks crossed the metal table. Along the walls stood sealed crates, restraint chains, and heretic remains that had not yet made it to purification. Duvette took in the room, then called for Evan.
"Commissar?"
Evan stepped inside and swept the space with a quick look.
Duvette said nothing immediately.
He had been turning over what excuse to use to bring the peculiar scribe here. His gaze dropped to the Entropy's Song at his hip, and he had a serviceable answer.
"Go and find that Inquisitorial scribe and bring him here." Duvette said. "Tell him to bring his recording tools and his Lord Inquisitor's authorisation. He said he was at my disposal, didn't he? Now I need him to help me log something."
Evan gave a nod. "Understood."
Outside the door, Vakur spoke.
"It would be advisable not to allow Inquisitorial personnel to handle the relic."
"Don't worry. My purpose is only to bring him here." Duvette said. "If he makes any unusual move once he arrives, I'll leave that to you."
Vakur looked at him briefly.
"Understood."
The wait was not long.
The composed Inquisitorial scribe arrived outside the containment room.
After being checked by the naval ratings at the door and the two Salamanders, he walked in with his data-slate in hand. The hatch closed behind him. The containment room held nothing but the dim lighting and the low mechanical hum.
Duvette had his back to the man, appearing to examine something on the table that he had not yet revealed.
The scribe stopped a few steps away and rendered his precise bow.
"Major General-Commissar Duvette Erdmann."
Duvette turned.
He lifted the Entropy's Song from his hip and set it directly on the metal table beside him. The dragon-skull sceptre lay dull under the cold light, like something that had spent a long time forgotten.
The scribe's expression barely shifted.
But Duvette caught the instant his gaze stopped on the Entropy's Song.
Duvette couldn't help it. He laughed.
He took several steps forward and stopped directly in front of the scribe.
"Let's hear it, then." Duvette looked into his eyes. "What exactly are you? An assassin? A thief? Something out of the Warp?"
The scribe blinked, and his face produced a genuinely puzzled expression.
"Major General-Commissar, I don't understand what you mean."
Duvette let out a quiet sigh.
The next instant, he shot his hand out and closed it around the scribe's throat.
The speed and force of it drove the man backward. Duvette's fingers locked against the throat, enough to strip the ability to resist from any normal human, but stopping well short of crushing bone.
Even the two Salamanders waiting in the purification lock were caught slightly off guard.
They had not expected him to move that quickly.
"Why bother?" Duvette looked at the man whose throat was in his grip, who had not shown a trace of panic. "The more perfectly human you look, the less human you seem."
The puzzled expression on the scribe's face retreated partway, replaced by something that might have been genuine confusion.
And this time, the confusion looked real.
"How did you find me out?" he said. "I believed my concealment was sufficient to pass the majority of observation methods your species employs."
"Then you don't know humanity well enough, sir."
Duvette flung him sideways.
The containment room's side door opened at the same moment. The two Salamanders who had been waiting in the purification lock stepped out.
From the outer door, Vakur pushed through as well.
One Salamander pressed a hand to the scribe's shoulder. Another locked his arm. Vakur moved to Duvette's side, meltagun barrel angled down, already aimed at the body's chest.
Duvette dusted his hands together, turned back to the table, picked up the Entropy's Song, and returned it to his hip.
Then he walked back to stand in front of the scribe.
"Juno's people are not this well-mannered." Duvette looked into his eyes. "So would you care to explain what you actually are? Or shall we work it out ourselves?"
The man was silent for a moment. Then he produced a low laugh.
The voice still belonged to the scribe's body. The register had changed.
"Please do not damage this body, Major General-Commissar." he said. "He is, at least, still alive."
Vakur's fingers tightened their grip.
The man kept smiling.
"You have surprised me considerably. My original intention was only to assess the relic's exhibition value. Having seen what I have, it appears the one who holds it should be preserved as part of the same collection."
Duvette heard that and understood the direction of the entity in front of him.
A cold smile crossed his face.
"Necrons?"
The man produced a look of surprise again.
"I see I underestimated you."
Duvette held his gaze.
"Undying Trazyn?"
The man went silent.
Being seen through, having his true species identified, those were within the range of acceptable outcomes. But a human Major General-Commissar pronouncing his specific name and title directly was beyond what Trazyn had calculated.
Silence held in the containment room for several seconds.
The smile on the man's face drew back by degrees. "You have the gift of foresight?"
"You tell me." It was Duvette's turn to smile.
He looked at the human body being operated by this Necron overlord, and let a thread of genuine curiosity into his voice.
"You came for Entropy's Song?"
Trazyn did not deny it.
"To a short-lived species such as yours, it is merely an object of excessive veneration that has been inadequately protected." he said. "To me, it is a historical specimen worthy of preservation. It ought to be housed in a proper exhibition, away from the smoke and blood and misplaced faith and careless custodians it has been subjected to."
Duvette shrugged.
"I wouldn't describe Necrons as a long-lived species."
Trazyn's gaze paused fractionally.
Duvette continued. "And a Necron who has lost its soul can hardly be said to be alive at all."
The temperature in the containment room seemed to drop slightly.
Trazyn was quiet for a moment.
"Short-lived species have a tendency to mistake death for philosophy." he said. "Though the fact that you know the word Pariah is noteworthy. Your display label will need to be longer."
Duvette did not continue the exchange.
He looked at Vakur.
"Contain this body. Have the Mechanicus priests run isolation checks, with Salamanders present throughout. No flesh, no metal fragments, no blood samples leave Containment Room Three."
Vakur's reply was low and immediate. "Understood."
Trazyn kept his eyes fixed on Duvette.
"I will remember you, interesting human."
Duvette dismissed it with a short laugh.
"Much appreciated."
Trazyn looked at him. The scribe's face produced that smile one more time.
"We will meet again."
A heartbeat later, small points of green light kindled in the scribe's pupils, and then went out just as quickly. The body went slack all at once, caught by the two Salamanders before it could fall.
"Vital signs still present." One Salamander said promptly. "Consciousness response abnormal."
Duvette looked at the body that was still breathing and understood. The consciousness had been operated by something analogous to Necron scarabs, micro-machine parasites that had commandeered the man's mind.
"Notify Evan for me." Duvette said. "Containment Room Three goes to maximum isolation. All monitoring records sealed. Nobody approaches without my authorisation."
"Understood."
Vakur directed his brothers to take the body out of the centre of the containment room.
Duvette looked down at the Entropy's Song at his hip and confirmed it was where it should be.
A moment later, he turned and left.
At the edge of the containment table behind him, where he could not see, a single thread of green light flickered once, and then vanished without a sound into the seam between two metal plates.
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