by Timothy Zahn
Nicole nodded. “This way.”
She headed down the corridors, the others falling into place according to Jeff’s orders. The drones likewise took up their positions, floating sentries for their little army.
Nicole listened to her heart pounding in her chest, trying to suppress her misgivings. This wasn’t the way she’d planned this. Not at all. But this was what she had.
She could only hope she hadn’t been lying when she’d told Bungie that Jeff had a really good plan.
nine
They didn’t see anyone as they wove their way through the passageways. As far as they could tell, and as far as the roving drones could see, the whole quadrant might be deserted.
That didn’t stop Nicole from tensing up at every closed door. The drone thing was what her grandmother always called a two-edged sword: the Ponngs could see anyone who might be around, but the drones’ very presence could also alert the Shipmasters that there were intruders nearby.
But the Shipmasters seemed to have missed out on that one. Ten minutes of walking, and the group reached the blank wall that marked the Q1/Q3 heat-transfer duct. Nicole called for Wisps, and while they waited the others began assembling their weapons.
It was intriguing to see what Jeff had come up with. It was also just a bit disappointing.
Jeff’s backpack contained a small pump, a battery pack to run it, and a tank of the plastic sealer the work crews sometimes sprayed over new electronics. Levi’s pack held another pump and battery pack plus a tank of lubricating oil. Tomas’s pack held an extra tank each of the sealer and the oil.
“I know it’s not much,” Jeff said in response to Nicole’s expression. “But this is what you get when you have to improvise everything.”
“Yeah.” Nicole looked over at Levi and Tomas, busily assembling the pumps a few yards away, and lowered her voice. “What about the Q4 arena observation gallery?” she asked. “Did you ever send Kahkitah to look up there?”
“Yeah, he and another Ghorf did some recon,” Jeff said. “The place was deserted. No Shipmasters, no recording equipment, no weapons. They seem to have pulled out completely.”
“What about the arena floor?”
“No one down there, either,” Jeff said. “And we haven’t seen any Shipmasters anywhere else in Q4. They seem to have ceded us the whole quadrant. I guess that makes sense, given that they can control the ship from Q1.”
Nicole nodded. “So how’s this supposed to work?”
“We use the plastic spray to hopefully slow down the Shipmasters and Koffren a little,” Jeff said. “The oil is for their eyes.”
“Or maybe to gum up those tangler guns,” Levi said.
“If we’re lucky,” Jeff said.
“Right,” Nicole said, eyeing the plastic-film tanks. She knew how long it took the plastic to set, and she’d seen how fast the Koffren could move. It wasn’t a race she was willing to bet on. “What’s with all the ceiling vents?”
“Oh, these are the best part.” Jeff hooked one of the stacks of gratings with his toe and slid it across the floor to her. “Take a look.”
Frowning, Nicole picked up the stack. The vents were like the thousands she’d seen all over the ship: each one about two and a half feet long, a foot and a half wide, and about half an inch thick. Each was covered with a pattern of small holes, like a pizza pan she’d seen once at a friend’s house.
The stack was also a lot lighter than she’d expected. “Okay,” she said, unhooking the strap that was holding them together.
Only even with the strap gone the vents stayed stuck together. Frowning, she took a closer look, to find that they were fastened together by a long bolt set a little ways up one edge and running through all of them. Near the bolt was a stiff U-loop handle like the ones she’d seen on shields once at a museum.
She blinked. Shields?
She looked up again, to find Jeff smiling tightly. “Yep,” he said. “Grab the handle and give the outer vent a spin.”
Nicole got a grip on the handle with her left hand and pushed the edge of the vent farthest out. The whole mass spun around the central point, each vent catching partway around the circle as the outer vent completed its rotation.
And she found herself holding a bumpy-edged shield.
“Nice, huh?” Jeff said. “You can thank Carp and Duncan for this one—they came up with the design and the mechanics.”
“Uh-huh,” Nicole said, looking more closely. The whole shield had a slight outward bulge in the middle, and all the holes made it easy to look through while still protecting herself.
On the other hand, the faceplates of the Koffren helmets had openings like this, too, and that had come back to bite them.
“We’re pretty sure the spider gun rounds won’t get through, but will just splatter on the surface,” Jeff continued. “Or, if we’re lucky, bounce off to the side completely—that’s why they made them a little bit convex. And if a spider round splatters across one set of holes, you can just rotate the shield to bring another set up so you can still see out. There’s a clasp there between the last two—push it to the side and you can collapse the whole thing back down again.”
Nicole found the clasp and swiveled the vents back around into their original stack form. “Yeah, I see,” Nicole said, running her eyes over the other stacks. Six of them, one for each member of the party. “Kind of big for the Ponngs, aren’t they?”
“Probably,” Jeff conceded. “But this is the only size we’ve got. If we get into a fight, I’m thinking they can just hunker down behind them while the rest of us do whatever charging we need to.”
“While they also run the drones,” Levi added.
“If they haven’t already been shot out of the air,” Tomas said.
“There’s that,” Levi conceded. “Ready here.”
“Me, too,” Tomas said. “Where are the damn Wisps?”
“I’m sure they’re coming,” Nicole said, filling her lungs. “Wisps!” she called, her shout echoing off the metal walls and ceiling. “The Protector needs six of you. Come here, please.”
For another moment nothing happened. Then, from the distant corner to their left, six Wisps appeared and glided toward them.
“Finally,” Tomas said under his breath.
“Yeah, great,” Jeff muttered. “I don’t suppose there’s any way to tell whether or not they’re on our side.”
“No problem,” Nicole said, stepping toward the Wisps. “Moile, Teika? Same as before.”
“Same what?” Jeff asked.
“You’ll see,” Moile called back over his shoulder as he and Teika moved up to flank Nicole, their swords held ready.
The Wisps were five steps away now. “Stop,” Nicole ordered.
They obeyed. Taking a careful breath, Nicole stepped to the closest one and backed toward it. The silver-veined arms wrapped around her, paralyzing her—
Welcome, Protector. How may I serve?
Nicole felt a surge of relief. Release me for a moment.
Yes, Protector.
The arms opened, and Nicole was again free to move. “It’s okay—they’re on our side,” she called to Jeff and the others. “Come on.”
Jeff gestured to the rest of the group, and they started toward her. Nicole waited until they were nearly there, then backed again into the Wisp’s arms. Welcome, Protector. How may I serve?
We need to cross the heat-transfer duct to Q1. Can you take us all across?
Yes, Protector.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw the other Wisps glide past her, heading toward the others. Jeff turned around, presenting his back; after a second’s hesitation Levi and Tomas did likewise. The Ponngs were last, Teika in particular still looking uncomfortable with this arrangement.
It wasn’t until the Wisps were carrying them through the blast of heat toward the open vent door that it belatedly occurred to Nicole that while her Wisp might be obeying her there was no guarantee that the others weren’t under Shipmaster control. If they were, then
this might be the last time she would ever see the other five alive.
Do you wish to cross to this same level?
No, take us down to level 25, she ordered. The Q1 arena entrance was on level 32, and the majority of her activities lately had been at that level or above. Crossing Q1 beneath the arena was something a little different, and might throw the Shipmasters off.
Her Wisp spread its butterfly wings, stepped into the open vent, and began drifting downward. A minute later, another door opened on the far side, and with a final burst of air at her back, Nicole and the Wisp settled onto the deck.
Have you any further orders, Protector?
Yes, Nicole said, wishing she could turn her head and see if Jeff and the others had also made it across safely. But she couldn’t do that until the Wisp released her, and she had one more order to give first. I need you and the other Wisps to remain here until we return and then take us back to Q3. Will you do that?
Yes, Protector. It opened its arms. Nicole turned around.
To find that her fears had been for nothing. All five of the others were beside her, alive and well, though Levi and Tomas looked a little shaken. “Everyone okay?” she asked.
“I’m fine,” Jeff said, eyeing the other two men. “I’m guessing you forgot what it was like.”
“Didn’t forget,” Levi said tartly. “Hated it the first time, too.”
“Talking about it doesn’t make it any better, either,” Tomas said.
“Point taken,” Jeff said. “Subject closed. Any ideas, Nicole?”
“Not really,” she said. “Might as well just head forward and see if we can find the inhabited sections.”
“Hopefully, before the inhabited sections find us,” Levi said.
They set off again. As they reached the midpoint of the corridor, Jeff casually moved closer to Nicole’s side. “I assume you told the Wisps to wait for us?” he asked quietly.
“Of course.”
“Good. What happens if they don’t?”
“Then we go with plan B.”
“Which is?”
Nicole braced herself. “It starts with me calling new Wisps…”
* * *
Tomas wanted to head forward in a straight shot, under the theory that the Shipmasters’ lair would be as close to the Fyrantha’s front as possible. Nicole wanted instead to run a kind of zigzag pattern, a section of straight followed by a turn right or left for a section or two before turning straight again.
Tomas objected to that plan. Levi didn’t care one way or the other. Jeff and the Ponngs sided with Nicole. That ended the discussion.
Or rather, it meant that Tomas had to brood quietly to himself instead of out loud to everyone else.
Which was fine with Nicole. A lot of Trake’s group discussions had ended the same way, and she’d learned how to deal with it.
Everywhere else that Nicole had been on the ship she’d seen work crews, or heard them in the distance, or at least seen evidence of their presence. Not here. Here in Q1 the Shipmasters held all the cards, and either had had everything already fixed or had learned to live without it.
Nicole also wasn’t surprised that they weren’t seeing any Koffren. There were only the two of them aboard, as far as she knew, and they had a lot of territory to cover if they were going to patrol even just Q1. More ominous to her was the complete absence of Wisps.
Jeff noticed that, too. “Awfully quiet in here,” he murmured to Nicole as they approached yet another corner. “You’d think they’d have figured out a decent trap by now.”
“Maybe they want us to get farther in,” Nicole suggested. “Make it harder for us to escape.”
“That’s one strategic philosophy,” Jeff agreed. “The other is that the farther in they let us get, the closer we are to critical areas where they don’t want us at all.”
“Except that we don’t know where any of those are.”
“Which they don’t know,” Jeff said. “They may be able to tap into the Oracle and Ushkai now, but they have no idea what the Fyrantha might have told you before they got their fingers into those parts of the ship.”
“Maybe,” Nicole said doubtfully.
“Trust me,” Jeff said with a hint of a malicious smile. “There’s nothing like uncertainty to spook an enemy.”
Ahead, Moile’s drone reappeared around the corner where it had been checking out the next cross-corridor. “All appears clear,” Moile reported softly.
“Right, left, or straight?” Jeff asked.
Nicole felt a tingle on the back of her neck. Had that been a slight change in air pressure, the faintest whisper of additional breeze across her forehead? Like a door had opened or closed nearby?
“Back,” she breathed. “Fall back. Now.”
“What?” Tomas demanded. “The hell—”
And around the corner ahead, striding behind the drone where he was just out of view of its camera, one of the Koffren appeared. He raised his spider gun, pointed it at Nicole, and fired. Nicole jerked backward—
The shot exploded into a sticky black splotch across Jeff’s shield as he thrust it in front of her. The Koffren fired again as Jeff squeezed close beside Nicole, hiding both of them behind his shield. There was another jerk and splash, and another section of vent holes was now blocked.
“Got it!” Nicole snapped, belatedly getting her own shield up into position and stepping away from Jeff. A spider round slapped into her shield, harder than she’d expected, and she spun the shield around in her hand to bring a section of unclogged holes up in front of her. The Koffren was walking toward them, not particularly hurrying. He shifted his aim to fire a couple of rounds behind her, and she heard the slaps as one of the other shields took the impacts.
“Here!” Jeff snapped, thrusting his shield at her. She caught it, fumbling the grip a moment as she tried to handle both shields, keeping one in front of each of them. Jeff slapped the pump control with his elbow.
And as another spider round hit Nicole’s shield he leaned around the edge of his and sent a burst of oil at the Koffren.
The big alien was ready. Even before the stream exploded from Jeff’s hose he had his left forearm in front of his helmet faceplate, protecting his eyes.
He was still moving forward when Levi suddenly appeared at Nicole’s side and sent a spray of liquid plastic at his arms, torso, and legs.
Nicole clenched her teeth as she peered through her shield’s holes, counting the seconds. If the plastic didn’t dry fast enough …
It didn’t. The Koffren broke stride for a second, but the sheer momentum of his swinging legs broke the film of plastic before it could properly set. Levi fired another burst, this time focusing on his legs—
And without warning Tomas sprinted past him, his shield held in front of him like a battering ram, charging straight at the Koffren.
With his vision partially blocked by his own arm, the Koffren didn’t have a chance. Tomas slammed full speed into him, knocking aside the big alien’s gun arm and continuing on to slam into his chest. The impact sent the Koffren to a staggering halt—
And as Tomas danced aside out of the way, Levi sent a final burst of plastic into the Koffren’s legs.
The Koffren roared something Nicole’s translator couldn’t decipher and fired toward Tomas and Levi. He lowered his arm a bit for better aim, only to catch another burst of oil from Jeff squarely in his faceplate.
This time the roar came out more of a gurgle. Apparently, Jeff had hit him in the mouth as well as the eyes.
“Fall back!” Jeff shouted. “Drones?”
“Area behind is clear,” Moile reported tightly.
“That won’t last long,” Nicole warned. The half-blind Koffren was still squeezing the spider gun’s trigger, but nothing was coming out. He’d run the weapon dry.
But he’d already done plenty. Nicole’s and Jeff’s shields were almost completely covered, and Levi’s and Tomas’s weren’t far behind. Even the Ponng shields had taken a round or two ea
ch from the Koffren’s random shots.
“Same order for retreat,” Jeff said as he and Nicole ran past the Ponngs. “Here—trade you,” he added, taking the partially covered shield from Teika and handing him his own more completely blacked-out one. “Nicole?”
“Right,” Nicole said, swapping shields with Moile. She and Jeff, at the front of the group, needed to be able to spot incoming threats more urgently than the Ponngs marching in the middle. “Anything?”
“Nothing,” Moile said with an edge of bitterness and shame. “But then, we also failed to see our last attacker.”
“Not your fault,” Nicole said. “He was hiding in one of the rooms while you made your sweep and only came out after the drones had turned away from him.” She glanced over her shoulder, making sure that Levi and Tomas were back in formation behind the Ponngs. “I think the plan was for him to pop out and surprise us once we passed.”
“Only your zigzags kept him out of position to do that,” Jeff said. “You think the other one’s pulling the same trick?”
“I’m guessing he’s a level above or below us,” Nicole said. “Trying to parallel us where he could get in position to box us in while the other one held our attention.”
“Which means he could show up anytime,” Levi said. “Jeff, how’s your supply?”
“Down to about half a tank,” Jeff said. “You?”
“One canister drained, the other in place.”
Nicole hissed out a breath. So they’d spent a full half their resources on a single Koffren.
“That’s okay,” Tomas gritted out. “It just takes one per Koffren.”
“If he gives you the chance to use it,” Levi warned.
“And if the Shipmasters don’t show up,” Nicole murmured.
“We’ll do whatever it takes,” Jeff said. “Now save your breath for running.”
* * *
They were half a corridor from the heat-transfer duct wall and within sight of the six Wisps Nicole had left there when their luck ran out.
But this time, at least, they had a little warning.
“Left side!” Teika warned as his drone flashed past the last cross-corridor before the duct wall and the long corridor running alongside it. “Coming in from a stairway.”