by Timothy Zahn
She filled her lungs with air. “Wisps!” she shouted. “All Wisps! I need you down here. Please,” she belatedly added, remembering that politeness seemed important to the Wisps in Q3. She stumbled, briefly off balance as Kahkitah steered her behind one of the pillars—
There was a sudden sharp slapping noise, like a slush ball hitting someone’s head. Something grabbed at the shoulder of her jumpsuit, trying to pull her to a halt. The grip spun her halfway around—there was a small tearing sound from her shoulder—
And as she looked back in the direction of the Koffren she saw a spiderlike clump of something on the edge of the pillar they’d just passed. It looked like a small dark glob sticking to the pillar, with a dozen tendrils stretched out across the pillar’s surface and one attached to her shoulder.
The tendril’s grip was incredibly strong. Fortunately for her, so was Kahkitah’s. He pulled on her hand, sending a jolt of pain through the arm. There was another tearing sound, a louder one this time, and the Ghorf’s momentum pulled her free from the tendril, leaving a small patch of her jumpsuit behind. Something shot past her face, and as Kahkitah got her turned forward again she saw another glob hit the next pillar ahead and explode into the same mass of tendrils.
“There!” Kahkitah said, pointing with his free hand.
“I see them,” Nicole said. In the distance ahead, right where Nicole had expected, four Wisps came into view, floating down through the heat-transfer duct’s updraft on their stretched-out butterfly wings. A quick glance to both sides showed similar groups landing on the deck beneath the other ducts.
“No good,” Jeff said grimly from behind her. “We can’t go that way. Too much clear space—they’ll nail us long before we get there.”
“Agreed,” Kahkitah said. Abruptly, he let go of Nicole’s arm. “Take her,” he said. “I’ll lead them away. Bungie den.”
“What?” Nicole gasped, stumbling a bit before Jeff’s steadying hand closed around her upper arm. “No, wait. You can’t go alone.”
“He has to,” Jeff said. “Don’t worry, they want you, not him.”
“Thanks,” Nicole growled.
And nearly lost her balance yet again as Jeff suddenly swerved them sideways toward the rows of memorial pillars. “Wait—where are we going?”
“The cemetery,” Jeff said. “There’s a group of Wisps over there—see them?”
“Of course I see them,” Nicole gritted out. They were also nearly twice as far away as the group she’d originally been leading them toward. “What about the Koffren?”
“I think we’ve got enough of a head start that if we keep low they won’t be able to get us.”
Nicole clenched her teeth. Not a single bit of that sounded reassuring.
But they had to try something. He was right about too much empty space along their original path, and even a glancing blow from one of those spidery things would stop them dead in their tracks. “I hope you’re right.”
“Me, too. Come on.”
Four more spider globs slapped into pillars or shot harmlessly through the space in front of them as they ran. The rows of memorial cylinders loomed ahead—Jeff shifted his grip from her upper arm to her hand—
And then they were there, Jeff leaning forward and ducking down, stretching his arm behind him to continue guiding and pulling Nicole through the rows. She leaned over, too, matching his posture as best she could, painfully aware that the leaning and the need to stay between the close-set cylinders was slowing them down.
But it seemed to be working. The spider globs were still spitting through the air all around them, but most of them were hitting and getting hung up on the pillars before they ever reached their targets. The only one that even came close shot between her and Jeff and snagged itself on a cylinder three rows away.
And then, suddenly, the cemetery ended. Jeff gave her an urgent tug and poured on a burst of speed. Nicole did the same, struggling to keep up. The Wisps were waiting for her fifty feet ahead—
“Two of you: come here,” she called as a sudden idea struck her. “Quickly. Please.”
Two of the Wisps glided forward. They passed her and Jeff—“Stand behind us and open your wings, please,” she ordered. She glanced over her shoulder, saw their wings unfurl in all their magnificent colors.
A second later the wings began to jerk and twitch as a barrage of spider globs slapped into them.
Three more seconds, and she and Jeff were at the two remaining Wisps. Nicole turned and backed into the nearest one’s chest. Its arms folded around her—
Welcome, Protector, the familiar voice came in her mind. How may I serve?
Take us to level 4 as quickly as you can, please, she thought back.
Yes, Protector.
Nicole sensed the wings unfurl.
And then she was rising up in the duct, leaving the cemetery and the Fyrantha’s basement behind. There was a small jolt as another spider glob slapped into the Wisp somewhere, causing a brief wavering in their ascent.
With the Wisp’s touch completely paralyzing her Nicole couldn’t tell where the glob had hit, or whether there’d been a serious injury. But to her relief, the wavering faded away and they continued smoothly upward. She couldn’t see Jeff and his Wisp from her position, and of course couldn’t move her eyes to look. All she could do was hope that he’d also gotten safely away.
Jeff, and Kahkitah.
She couldn’t wince in the Wisp’s grip. But that didn’t prevent a double wince’s worth of guilt from trickling through her. Jeff had been right about the Koffren and Shipmasters wanting her and not Kahkitah. But that didn’t mean they wouldn’t settle for second prize if that was all they could get.
After all, the Cluufes she’d first faced in the Q4 arena had been perfectly willing to use Jeff as a hostage to get her to do what they wanted. Even if the main Lillilli culture that the Shipmasters came from didn’t go in for that sort of thing, the Shipmasters themselves had certainly watched the Cluufes’ strategy and seen the result. They might well think that capturing Kahkitah would force Nicole to give herself up.
They might be right. The Fyrantha was counting on Nicole to protect it, but she was supposed to protect everyone inside, too. She and Kahkitah had been through a lot together, and there wasn’t much she wouldn’t do for him.
Especially since leaving him in Shipmaster hands might reveal to them that the Ghorfs aboard the ship were far more than the strong but simpleminded creatures they’d pretended to be all these years.
And that would be disastrous. Right now, the Ghorfs were her—and the Fyrantha’s—secret weapon, a group of willing soldiers the Shipmasters had no idea were sitting there under their noses. The last thing Nicole could afford was for that secret to be exposed.
She brooded about it all the way up the ship, knowing there was nothing she could do about it, but brooding just the same. Finally—the trip felt longer than usual—the door slid open and the Wisp floated through it onto the solid deck.
Have you any further orders, Protector? it asked into her mind.
No. Thank you, Nicole thought back at it.
The Wisp opened its arms, and Nicole was once again free to move. She turned around just as the second Wisp floated through the doorway and set Jeff down on the deck. Both Wisps turned and glided down the corridor, furling their wings as they went.
But not as smoothly or as neatly as usual. Both Wisps had a pair of spider globs on their wings, which kept them from folding properly. “Damn it,” Nicole muttered under her breath. “I hope to hell the Fyrantha has something that can get that out.”
“The Fyrantha, or the Shipmasters,” Jeff agreed as he stepped to her side. “You saw him, right?”
“Saw him who?”
“The Koffren weren’t alone,” Jeff said sourly. “There was a Shipmaster tagging along behind them.”
“No, I didn’t see him,” Nicole said. “Where was he?”
“About fifty meters back,” Jeff said. “I didn’t even
know he was there until we were floating up and I got a higher viewpoint.”
“Was he armored?”
“Armored and centaured,” Jeff said. “Not sure if that’s a word. Anyway, he was definitely leading from the rear, as we used to say in the Marines. We didn’t say it very kindly.”
“I suppose not,” Nicole said, frowning. But if the Shipmaster was in centaur armor, that probably meant he was carrying a set of greenfire weapons with him. With that kind of weaponry, why had he been hanging back? Surely he wasn’t afraid of two unarmed humans and a Ghorf.
For that matter, if he had greenfire weapons available, why had the Koffren been using spider guns?
“Come on,” Jeff said, taking her arm. “Let’s get someplace where we can talk.”
“Not yet,” Nicole said. “First we need to find Kahkitah. Then we can talk.”
“You have any idea where he went?”
Nicole nodded. “He said Bungie den just before we separated. That’s got to be either the pump room where I stashed Bungie after he got shot in the arena or else the ready room he went to afterward to hide out.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Jeff said, a bit doubtfully. “Would have been nice if he’d made it a little clearer.”
“He was probably afraid he’d be overheard and didn’t want the Koffren or Shipmasters figuring it out,” Nicole said.
“Maybe,” Jeff said. “You realize Fievj knows about the ready room, right?”
“Yes, and Kahkitah knows that, too,” Nicole said. “I’m hoping he went to the pump room instead.”
“And if he didn’t and the Shipmasters have him?”
“Then we go take him away from them.”
Jeff pursed his lips, his eyes tracking across her face with an intensity that made her uncomfortable. She held his gaze, and after a moment he gave a small shrug. “And then?”
“Then we go and talk,” she said. “And come up with ideas.”
“Good,” Jeff said grimly. “Because we sure as hell could use a few.”
two
Nicole decided to try the ready room first, hoping that if Kahkitah had been caught there and captured he would have left behind some trace of his presence. But there was nothing. No trace, no Shipmasters, and no Kahkitah.
He wasn’t in the pump room, either. But even as she and Jeff sat down to try to come up with their next move the door opened and the big Ghorf slipped inside.
“I’m so sorry to have concerned you,” he apologized.
“Don’t worry about it,” Nicole assured him. “We’re just glad you’re here. How did you get away?”
“I thought it best to continue with the façade my people have carefully constructed these many years,” he said, sitting down beside her. “Instead of running to the first group of Wisps I continued past them as if I had panicked and had no idea what I was doing.”
“The Koffren eventually connected with a shot and brought me down.”
“They got you?” Jeff asked, frowning. “And then they just let you go?”
“Yes, but not without considerable persuasion,” Kahkitah said. “I explained that Nicole had asked me to bring food and water for a meeting you were planning. I told them this was my first trip to this region of the Fyrantha, and that I’d only brought a few food bars and water bottles.”
“In other words, just what you had on you,” Jeff said.
“Yes. I told them you were annoyed that I hadn’t brought more. I told them I apologized, that I’d misunderstood. Then, when the Koffren appeared, you told me they were here to kill me for my failure and ordered me to run.”
“What about the fact that you helped me get away?” Nicole asked.
“I told them I thought some creature from the Fyrantha’s dark underbelly had attacked us,” Kahkitah said. “I panicked and pulled you free. I was also startled and confused to learn that you’d left long before the Koffren caught me.”
“And they bought that?” Jeff asked, frowning.
“The conversation wasn’t actually with them,” Kahkitah said. “One of the Shipmasters—Fievj, I believe—did the questioning. The Koffren merely stood by and acted angry.”
“I doubt they were acting,” Nicole said.
“And then he just let you go?” Jeff asked.
“He did better than that,” Kahkitah said. “He brought me to the hive himself. Did you know that centaur armor could fly straight up the heat-transfer ducts?”
“No, but it makes sense,” Nicole said. “They have to be able to get around somehow, and they still don’t control all the Wisps.”
“But he just let you go?” Jeff persisted. “I can’t believe even Fievj is that naïve.”
“Oh, not at all,” Kahkitah said. “He placed a device on the back of my jumpsuit that I assume was a location tracer of some kind.” He whistled something untranslatable. “Sadly, there was a lingering odor from the removal chemical that I found distressing, so I left the jumpsuit in my room and changed into another.”
“They used a chemical to get the stuff off?” Jeff asked. “I’d assumed they would have to cut it.”
“No, it was a far more elegant solution,” Kahkitah said. “They had a small bottle with a dropper built into the lid. Two drops on the tangler tendrils dissolved and evaporated them in short order.”
“A liquid chemical, huh?” Jeff said with a lopsided smile. “An elegant solution. Nice.”
“I don’t follow.”
“A liquid chemical,” Jeff said. “A solution.”
Kahkitah looked blankly at him a moment, then turned to Nicole. “I think I must be missing something.”
“Oh,” Jeff said, the smile disappearing. “Never mind. I forget you’re not speaking English. Solution probably doesn’t have the same double meaning in your language.”
“No, not at all,” Kahkitah said. “But I’m sure the joke was amusing.”
“Like we say, you had to be there,” Jeff said dryly. “Forget it.”
“I will,” Kahkitah said. “Someday, when this is all over, we must discuss wordplay.” He gave a short whistle. “But that is the future. This is the present. I presume you’ve come up with a plan in my absence?”
“We’re working on it,” Jeff said. “We spent most of the last hour worrying about you. I guess we’ll know better next time.”
“Your concern was indeed unnecessary, but nonetheless greatly appreciated,” Kahkitah said, ducking his head. “Hopefully, the information I gleaned during my interrogation will make up for the lost time.”
“You reverse-interrogated them?” Jeff asked. “Nice.”
“I don’t know that term,” Kahkitah said. “I asked no questions, but simply observed. First, the entanglement weapons.”
“You mean the spider guns?” Nicole asked.
“Yes,” Kahkitah said. “Is that what humans call them?”
“I don’t know if humans call them anything,” Nicole said. “It’s what I call them. I’m not sure we even have anything like that on Earth.”
“We didn’t as of a few years ago, anyway,” Jeff said. “What about them?”
“They aren’t designed for the Koffren,” Kahkitah said. “The grip and the placement of trigger and other controls don’t fit hands and fingers their size.”
“So they’re Shipmaster weapons,” Jeff said, nodding.
“So I conclude,” Kahkitah said. “I furthermore don’t believe the Koffren ever shot them before today.”
“You getting that from their rotten accuracy?”
“Rotten at the beginning, but much better at the end,” Kahkitah agreed. “I furthermore conclude that projectile weapons of that sort aren’t completely foreign to them.”
“Interesting,” Jeff said thoughtfully. “Not just that, but the other implications. Fievj was with them in the lower level, and I can’t see him bothering with that centaur section unless it’s stocked with those greenguns.”
“So why were the Koffren using spider guns?” Nicole murmured.
“Which means they don’t trust them,” Nicole said. “Fievj and the Shipmasters. They don’t trust the Koffren.”
“Not surprising if the Koffren are merely more warriors for the arenas,” Kahkitah said.
“Yeah, well, that’s where it gets confusing,” Nicole said. “One of the Shipmasters—probably Fievj—told me the Koffren had been taken from their homes and were mad about that. But then one of the Koffren said that the one who’d brought them in wasn’t Fievj but Nevvis—he’s another Shipmaster—and that Nevvis deals with the buyers.”
“Could have been a little psych going on,” Jeff suggested. “Pretending they were higher up the food chain to put us at a disadvantage.”
“I don’t think so,” Nicole said. “The Koffren also said they were testing us for our value in battle. I can’t see the Shipmasters telling just anyone what they’re up to.”
“Well, somebody’s lying,” Jeff said. “Big surprise there.”
“Assume for the moment that the Koffren are telling the truth about being buyers,” Kahkitah said. “That raises more interesting questions.”
“Such as?” Nicole asked.
“Have the Koffren always been aboard?” Kahkitah said, ticking off fingers. “Are they newcomers? If so, were they brought in specifically for you, or were they here for a different purpose? Are there more than just two of them?”
“And why would the Shipmasters give them spider guns instead of greenguns?” Jeff added. “By the way, as to that last one, we don’t know for sure that the two in the lower level were the same ones we tangled with in Q1.”
“They were,” Kahkitah said. “I saw marks on their wrists from the tridents.”
“We cut them?” Nicole asked, frowning. “I don’t remember seeing any blood.”
“There wasn’t any,” Kahkitah confirmed. “The marks were not so much cuts or scratches as they were indentation marks. Their skin appears to be quite thick and dense, though there’s a subtle color variation toward the neck that perhaps suggests the skin of their faces is thinner and less durable.”