by Timothy Zahn
Hovering silently in the air in front of the aliens were four disks the size of dinner plates, spinning like helicopter blades.
An old saying flashed through Nicole’s mind. Only in this case, it seemed she’d brought toy swords to a drone fight.
four
“Are those attack flyers?” Moile asked from behind her, his voice tense.
“Yeah, I think so,” Nicole said. At least the Ponngs didn’t need to be brought up to speed on the things. “We call them drones.”
Moile muttered something Nicole’s translator couldn’t handle. “We should have brought arrows,” he said.
“We have few left, and weren’t expecting full combat,” Teika reminded him.
“They wouldn’t have been much use against those, anyway,” Nicole gritted out, trying to figure out what kind of weapons the drones might be carrying. She didn’t see any guns or missiles. Were they designed to just ram into people and things?
A second later she got her answer. The drones shifted position, two going high and two going low, each one abruptly seeming to double in size as some kind of string or wire played out from their spinning edges. It reminded her of the weed-whackers she’d seen the landscaping people in the park using.
“Looks like wire or possibly blades,” Teika confirmed. “They’re designed for slashing attacks.”
Killer drones in front of them, paralyzing Wisps coming up behind them. Nicole glanced over her shoulder, wondering how much closer the Wisps had come while she’d been focused on this latest threat. If the drones were just a diversion, the Wisps might be right on top of them by now.
She frowned, taking a second, longer look. Instead of continuing forward, the Wisps had stopped twenty yards behind her and were just standing there. Waiting for her to make a decision on who to attack first?
She muttered a curse. Of course they were. The Shipmasters were still trying to figure out how she—and humans in general—did in combat. This time, the test was probably to see if she would stand aside and throw the Ponngs at the attackers. Or maybe it was whether the Ponngs would willingly let themselves be sacrificed that way, or whether she would have to talk them into it.
Fine. Maybe she could throw them a curve. Turning back to the stick hornets and their drones, she filled her lungs. “Hey!” she shouted. “Weren’t you warned about attacking or bothering people wearing jumpsuits?”
One of the aliens opened his mouth and spit out a quick series of singsong sounds, like the kind of talk she sometimes heard coming out of Chinese restaurants. A small wave of air wafted down the corridor along with the words.
At least now she knew where the odd smell was coming from.
“We were told to attack you,” the translation came in Nicole’s mind. “We were given new orders.”
“By who? Him?” She pointed past them toward the lurking Shipmaster. “He doesn’t make the rules here. The Fyrantha—the ship—makes the rules, and the rule is still to leave us alone.”
The drones had been inching forward. Now they stopped, resuming their hovering. The stick hornet who’d talked to her took a step backward and began talking to the Shipmaster, his voice too soft for Nicole’s translator to pick up. The other three aliens kept watch on Nicole and the Ponngs.
“What’s your plan?” Moile murmured.
“She’s bought us time,” Teika told him.
“Yeah, but probably not much,” Nicole warned, glancing around. Stick hornets in front of them, Wisps behind them.
And between the two groups, a single door.
Nicole smiled tightly. So that was it. The Shipmaster was hoping the two threats would drive them into that room for refuge. Once they were inside, he would probably just lock them in and call it a day.
And Jeff and Kahkitah could search for months without ever finding them.
Teika was obviously thinking along the same lines. “Perhaps they’ve outsmarted themselves,” he suggested quietly. “There may be a second door on the room’s other side through which we could escape. I’ve noted that some of the rooms in the hive have two entrances.”
“Yeah, but not many of them,” Nicole said. “We can’t risk it.”
“What do you wish us to do?” Moile asked. “Whatever you ask, we will do it.”
Nicole eyed the stick hornets. The one was still talking to the Shipmaster, and the other three didn’t seem inclined to do anything more until that conversation was over. The question was, what would they do in response if Nicole and the Ponngs made a run for it?
Only one way to find out. “We’re going through the Wisps,” she decided. “When I give the word, run as fast as you can: Moile along the left-hand wall, Teika along the right. If they reach for you, try to dodge your ways clear. You can maybe bat their hands away with the flat sides of your swords to keep them from grabbing you.”
“Just the flat sides?” Moile asked. “You don’t wish them injured?”
Nicole hesitated. If she called this one wrong, and the Ponngs got captured as a result, it could cost them their lives.
But somehow, she knew this was the right thing to do, just like she’d somehow known how to bargain with the Thii Maven. “I don’t want them injured, yes,” she said. “While you go up the sides, I’ll go up the middle. If they let you get past them, just—I don’t know. Tackle them from behind if you can, or keep going and get back to the Q4 Wisps if you have to. We’ll just have to play it by ear.”
“Understood,” Teika said. “Tell us when to go.”
The stick hornet finished his conversation and started to turn back around—“Go,” Nicole ordered.
She spun around toward the Wisps and charged toward them as fast as she could. A second later she remembered that the Ponngs had to get there first and slowed down.
She needn’t have bothered. Both of the shorter aliens had put on bursts of speed of their own, hugging the walls as they tore down the corridor. So far the Wisps hadn’t moved, either outward to catch the Ponngs or inward to double-team Nicole.
What were they waiting for?
Unless those small hesitations she’d seen earlier meant they weren’t under as much control as the Shipmasters liked?
One way to find out. “Wisps, stand still!” she shouted. “Just stand still. Please.”
And to her mild surprise, they did just that. Both stood motionless, their eyes forward, their arms at their sides. The two Ponngs shot past—
A second later Nicole ducked as one of the drones shot over her head, its spinning blades sending a gust of wind through her hair. The disk angled up onto its side, skidded a few feet farther past her—she had no idea whether a drone could actually skid, but that was what it looked like—and as it stopped it flattened out again, ready for another try.
Nicole tensed, slowing a little as she watched the drone, wondering if dodging it would send her right into the Wisps’ arms. Maybe that was the Shipmaster’s real plan.
With her full attention focused on the drone she didn’t even see Teika doubling back. Not until he slipped between the Wisps and stabbed his sword upward through the drone.
The drone didn’t disintegrate completely. But it came pretty damn close. The whole edge seemed to explode outward, sending small pieces of itself spinning across the corridor’s walls, ceiling, and floor. One piece sliced past her cheek, scratching a brief flash of pain across the skin, but most of the ones that hit her bounced off her jumpsuit with less jolt than a snowball. As the drone’s outer rim scattered itself across the corridor, the central core dropped to the floor like a rock, hitting and spinning around madly like a top that had fallen over.
It was still moving when Teika darted a hand into the machinery, grabbed the core by a piece of bent tubing, and ducked back again. “Come on!” Moile called to Nicole, beckoning urgently from the wall just past the Wisps.
Nicole didn’t need any encouragement. She didn’t know what exactly the drones would do if one of them hit her, and she wasn’t anxious to find out. She dodged betwee
n the still-motionless Wisps—
“Wisps! Open your wings,” she called over her shoulder. “Please.”
She glanced over her shoulder as the Ponngs joined her in her run. The butterfly wings stretched out, filling much of the corridor and blocking the stick hornets’ sight. And, hopefully, their drones.
Once again, the Wisps had obeyed her. So had they ever been under Shipmaster control at all?
She scowled. The long corridor at the inner edge of Q3 was still pretty far away, and her leg muscles were already complaining at her. But there was another cross-corridor about fifty yards ahead that they should be able to duck around. Once around the corner, they should be clear of the Shipmaster and stick hornets, especially if the two Wisps continued their blocking action.
But if Nicole left now, she might never see these particular Wisps again. And suddenly she really, really wanted to talk to them.
It was dangerous. It was probably also stupid. But she needed information, and this was the only way she could think of to get it. “Wisps!” she called behind her. “Come with me. Hurry.”
“What are you doing?” Teika demanded, half turning to stare at her as he ran.
“I want to talk to them,” Nicole said, starting to pant with the exertion.
“What if they’re obeying the Shipmasters?”
“They aren’t,” Nicole said. “Turn right—here.”
She glanced back as she and Teika rounded the corner. Moile was hanging back, trotting along backward, his attention on the Wisps. With the butterfly wings still extended the stick hornets weren’t visible, and Nicole wondered if they were even now charging toward them.
And then she was around the corner and still running. The adrenaline that had fueled the last few minutes was wearing off, and the lead in her legs was starting to be replaced by jolts of pain. “Go back,” she panted to Teika. “Make sure Moile is all right.”
“He is,” Teika assured her. “There haven’t been any screams of warning or distress.”
“Doesn’t mean the Shipmaster isn’t about to grab him,” Nicole countered. “Or if those drones get to him he might not have time to shout.”
“The Dronemasters won’t follow,” Teika said. “With the Wisps no longer under firm control, the Shipmaster dare not risk losing his servants and weapons to our hands.”
Nicole lowered her eyes to the drone piece still clutched in his hand. “If we can figure out how to use it.”
“This?” Teika hefted the twisted chunk of metal and plastic. “It’s a simple gyroscopically stabilized flying device with counter-rotating blades. Not difficult to understand.”
Nicole felt her mouth drop open. “It’s—what?”
“Do I surprise you?” Teika asked quietly. “Just because we were given swords and bows to use, Protector, don’t assume that the Ponngs are primitives.”
“I guess not,” Nicole said, feeling a rush of heat to her face that had nothing to do with her physical exertions. “Sorry.”
“That’s all right.” Teika looked over his shoulder. “They should appear soon.”
“Yeah,” Nicole said, frowning as a sudden thought struck her. If these were like the drones other gangs sometimes used … “Can you tell if it can see us? Or is it just a weapon?”
“Attack flyers would be largely useless if they couldn’t also see.” Teika slowed to a jog, holding the mechanism up to his eyes. He reached three slender fingers into a half-circle pit at one edge, there was a soft snap—
“It can no longer see,” he declared. He peered closely at the little disk he’d pulled from the drone, then tossed it to the side of the corridor. He looked over his shoulder again—“Here they come.”
Nicole looked back. The two Wisps had appeared around the corner, gliding along the floor toward her and Teika, their wings still extended and blocking Nicole’s view behind them. Between her and them—
She tensed. Between her and them should have been Moile. But he was nowhere in sight. “What happened to Moile?” she asked, stopping. If the Shipmaster had taken him, there was no way she and Teika could rescue him alone.
“Nothing, I hope,” Teika said. “He stopped at the corner to observe the Shipmaster and Dronemasters and confirm they weren’t following us.”
“I didn’t hear him say he was going to do that.”
“He didn’t speak with his voice,” Teika said. “But I was watching, and he used hand signals to alert me before letting the Wisps pass him by.”
Nicole frowned. “I didn’t know you had hand signals.”
“Vjoran taught his system to us in the arena,” Teika said. “Before he was my master, he was a soldier.”
“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?” Nicole said, feeling a fresh wave of cautious hope. She’d always assumed that the Shipmasters mostly grabbed their test subjects at random. Certainly the Micawnwi she’d first met in Q4 seemed to have all been civilians.
Had Fievj narrowed his search when he trolled for Ponngs? Or had it been pure luck that he’d grabbed a trained soldier? Either way, the fact that Teika and Moile had had at least a little training meant she and Jeff had more than just themselves and the Ghorfs to count on.
There was a shadow of movement behind the Wisps, and to Nicole’s relief Moile slipped around their outstretched wings. He nodded to her and Teika, and his hand made a quick movement.
“They’re not following,” Teika translated.
“Good,” Nicole said, a little of the tension leaving her. Though she wouldn’t put it past the Shipmasters to wait until Moile disappeared before charging after them. “Wisps, fold your wings,” she called. “Please.”
Again, there was a moment of hesitation. Then the wings collapsed against their backs, unblocking the view behind them. The cross-corridor was indeed empty.
“Come on,” she told Teika, and started toward them. Might as well meet the Wisps and Moile halfway. “I want to talk to the Wisps.”
“About what?” Teika asked as he fell into step beside her.
“The Shipmasters,” Nicole said. “The ship. Pretty much everything they can tell me.”
“That might be dangerous.”
“So is not knowing everything that’s going on,” Nicole countered. “Don’t worry, they won’t grab me.”
“Very well,” Teika said, clearly reluctant. “But I suggest you speak quickly. More enemies may be on the way.”
Nicole winced. “Yeah.”
“Are we going back?” Moile asked as they reached him and continued past.
“We’re having a talk,” Nicole said, stopping and holding out her hand toward the Wisps. “Stop.”
They took two more steps, plus one hesitation, then stopped. Nicole walked around the one on the left, making sure to stay well out of easy reach, and stepped up behind it. Making sure she was ready to back away if either of them made any sudden moves, she rested her palm against one of the silver-laced shoulders.
In Q4 the Wisps typically greeted her and asked what she wanted. Not this pair. Do you know who I am? she thought at it.
You are the Fyrantha’s Protector.
So at least it knew that much. That’s right. Tell me what the Shipmasters told you to do.
There was a short pause.
Wisp? Tell me what the Shipmasters told you to do.
We were to secure you, the Wisp said hesitantly. We were to hold you until Nevvis came and took you to himself.
Nicole pursed her lips. So Nevvis himself was in charge of hunting her down now? According to the Koffren, he was the one who dealt with the buyers. If the Shipmasters followed the same sort of pattern as Trake’s gang, that would make Nevvis the boss.
Apparently, Nicole had become more important since the days when Fievj had been sent to deal with her and the rest of the work crews. So you followed us when we reached this level and headed toward the arena, Nicole said. But you didn’t grab me. Why not?
You are the Protector. You ordered us to stop.
You didn
’t obey that order right away, Nicole reminded it. You kept coming.
Our orders were … conflicted. Incompatible. We could not obey both.
So you decided to obey your Protector instead of Nevvis?
Yes. But our orders are still conflicted.
So the Shipmasters were still trying to control the Wisps, but it wasn’t working. How did you know where to find us?
You sent a message. It was heard.
Did the Caretaker hear it and tell the Shipmasters?
Not the Caretaker. The Oracle. The part of the ship that speaks for the Shipmasters.
I thought it spoke to the Sibyls and fighters, Nicole said.
It’s the part that speaks for the Shipmasters, the Wisp repeated. Just as the Caretaker speaks for the Fyrantha itself.
Who speaks to the Sibyls? Nicole asked.
The Oracle.
So the Shipmasters are the ones who are telling us how to fix the ship?
No. That is the Oracle.
Nicole made a face. Clearly, there was something here she wasn’t getting.
Though with the Fyrantha still fragmented, maybe she wasn’t the only one who was confused about how things worked. Are you talking to the Shipmasters now?
No.
Can you talk to them?
The Wisp hesitated. Yes.
All right. Nicole paused, collecting her thoughts. At the moment all she had was the vaguest hint of a plan, and if she couldn’t get it to work then provoking the Shipmasters probably would be a bad idea. But this might be her only way to get their attention without having to get within shouting distance of them. It was worth the risk to see if this was a channel they could use somewhere down the line. You tell them that they can’t win. They can’t win because I understand them. I understand them, I understand the Wisps, I understand the Koffren. In fact, I understand the whole damn Fyrantha. I know how everything works, and I know how to make it all work against them. You got that?