Queen

by Timothy Zahn

  “Right,” Nicole said. “Nothing yet—”

  She broke off, gasping, her arm suddenly feeling like it was on fire. Reflexively, she grabbed it, pressing hard against the skin.

  The pressure seemed to help. The heat faded …

  A strange dimness seemed to wash across her eyes and mind, like the sun going down and leaving everything looking flat and dim, all the colors washed out. The sun had gone down on her brain, too, leaving it hard to think or comprehend what was happening. “Sam,” she breathed, her voice sounding strange and distant. “Sam, what’s happening?”

  “You’re saving the ship,” he said, his voice as distant as hers. “That’s what you wanted, right? Well, you’re saving it. You’re saving it in the only way you ever could.” He stood up and took her arm. “Come on. We’re leaving.”

  Nicole tried to fight it. But somehow it was impossible to disobey his voice. She stood up at his urging and turned toward the door. “Where are you taking me?” she asked.

  “The place you’ve been heading since you first got here,” he said. “The place you’ve been trying to take all the rest of us.

  “I’m taking you to hell.”

  seventeen

  The hallway outside was deserted. Sam led the way, walking fast, gripping Nicole’s upper arm as if afraid she was going to fall over. The corridors were as empty as the one outside the medical center had been. Not really surprising, Nicole decided, though it took her a couple of minutes to work her way through to that awareness. Jeff, Iosif, and the Ponngs were long gone, and in the aftermath of the Koffren raid it was likely that everyone else was trying to lie low.

  At the first stairway Sam took them down four levels, then turned and continued forward. A few more deserted corridors later, they reached the crosswise heat transfer duct separating them from Q2.

  A Shipmaster in full armor was waiting for them there. “Was there trouble?” he asked as the two humans approached. “Were you seen?”

  “No, and no,” Sam said. “Who are you?”

  “I am Ryit,” the Shipmaster said. “I serve directly under Fievj.”

  “Fievj told you about the deal?”

  “I serve directly under Fievj,” Ryit repeated.

  “So that’s a yes?”

  “I said already,” Ryit said. “I’ll take her now.”

  “No,” Nicole said. Her voice still sounded distant, and she could now hear some slurring in it, as well. “Don’t give me. He’ll drop me down shaft. Kill me.”

  “Well, that’ll still save the ship,” Sam said. “That’s what you wanted, right?”

  “Not save,” Nicole said. “If he kills me, then wrath of God. No.” She paused, trying to find the right word. “No. Wrath of Caretaker. Wrath of Fyrantha.”

  “I’ll take her now,” Ryit said, taking a step toward them.

  “Back off,” Sam warned, pulling Nicole back a step of his own. “What does she mean, the wrath of the Caretaker and the Fyrantha? What happens with the ship if you kill her?”

  “We aren’t going to kill her,” Ryit said, taking another step.

  “I said back off,” Sam snapped. “And that’s not what I asked. She’s the Fyrantha’s Protector. Does the ship do something bad if you kill her?”

  “We aren’t going to kill her,” Ryit repeated.

  “Liar,” Nicole muttered. “Kill me. Bad to be aboard when that happens. Bad, bad, bad.” She pawed weakly at Sam’s arm with her free hand. “’f I were you, I’d get off. Right now.”

  “Yeah, that’s the plan, sweetheart,” Sam said. But even in Nicole’s glazed vision and fogged mind he seemed uncertain. “That is still the plan, right?” he added to Ryit.

  “Of course,” Ryit assured him. “Your deal with Fievj. Your return to Earth in exchange for the Protector.”

  “Don’t trust him,” Nicole insisted. “Kill me. You smart, you get off first.”

  “Actually, that’s not a bad idea,” Sam said. “Yeah, okay. We’ll do it that way.”

  “Impossible,” Ryit said. “The deal was for you to—”

  “I know what the deal was,” Sam interrupted him. “And I don’t recall any mention of which part came first.”

  “She’s babbling,” Ryit protested. “I’ve given you my word, as has Shipmaster Fievj.”

  Nicole snorted. “Word. Right.”

  “Yeah, I’m inclined to agree,” Sam said. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a small, round capsule. “Okay, pay attention. This is the antidote for the drug. One whiff of this, and she’ll be alive, well, and screaming for the nearest Wisps. I’m pretty sure you don’t want that.”

  Ryit was standing very stiffly. “What do you want?”

  “You’ll take us to the teleport room,” Sam said. “Once you’ve set the coordinates and the Wisp has me ready to go, you can have her. Not until then.”

  Ryit’s face wasn’t visible behind his armored helmet. But Nicole nevertheless had some fun imagining what it might look like right now.

  “Very well,” the Shipmaster said, his voice low and very reluctant. “I’ll take you there.”

  “Good,” Sam said. “Now—”

  He put the antidote capsule back in his pocket and pulled out a square one. “This is a dose of the drug I just gave her. If I break this under her nose, she’ll be in an instant overdose state. That means she’ll die. Remember what she said about the ship reacting badly if that happens?”

  “I don’t believe her,” Ryit said stiffly.

  “I don’t necessarily believe it, either,” Sam said. “But I also don’t believe in taking unnecessary chances. I’m going to the teleport room and leaving. After that, if you still don’t believe her, you’re welcome to gamble with your own lives if you want.”

  “I’ve already said we don’t intend—”

  “And if you screw with me, we all find out the hard way,” Sam again interrupted. He started to put the square capsule back in his pocket, then raised it up again. “No, I think I’ll keep this handy. So. How exactly do we do this?”

  * * *

  How they did it was by riding on Ryit’s back like a horse.

  Really. Just like in the movies. At Ryit’s instruction, Nicole climbed up and sat on the centaur part, right behind his real body. Once she was settled, Sam got up and squeezed in close behind her.

  It was cozy. Way cozier than Nicole normally would have been comfortable with. Shot full of Sam’s drug, though, she could recognize the unpleasantness but not really feel any of it. In front of her legs and behind Sam’s, two sets of wings extruded from the centaur body, ending up with something that reminded Nicole of how dragonflies looked. Except with a horse instead of a dragonfly body, of course.

  Shipmasters as dragonflies. Wisps as butterflies. Idly, Nicole wondered if that was just because wings like that worked best and most efficiently, or whether it was because the Fyrantha’s designers had had a weird sense of humor.

  Wisps could open the access doors to the heat ducts telepathically. Ryit, though, had to use a small flat box, pressed against the wall, to open the panel. He also flew a lot less smoothly than the Wisps, bucking and bouncing back and forth and at one point coming close to losing both of his passengers. But Nicole had her arms wrapped around the slippery metal encasing the Shipmaster’s chest, and Sam had an even more uncomfortable grip around hers, and they made it across.

  Though not straight across, the way Nicole usually did when she was traveling by Wisp. Instead, he angled them downward, dropping eight levels during the short crossing. Whether it was deliberate or whether Ryit just wasn’t very good at this, Nicole couldn’t tell.

  She’d never ridden a horse before, but despite the jolts it was kind of fun. She hoped Ryit would let her ride the rest of the way to the teleport room, or at least until they got across Q3 and through the next heat duct into Q1.

  Sadly, the door behind them had barely cut off the flow of hot air before he pulled the wings back in and ordered both her and Sam to get off.
/>   She was pretty sure the full comment was actually get the freaking hell off. But her translator didn’t get that one particular word.

  They saw two Wisps along the way through Q3, and Nicole hoped Ryit would call on them to carry them across the heat duct instead of doing it himself. But he didn’t. Her next thought was that she could call them herself. Surely they would obey her, provided she remembered to say please.

  But Ryit was striding along like his butt was on fire, and Sam was tugging on her arm, and before she could make up her mind the three of them were past, and the Wisps were gone, and it was too late.

  She probably would have forgotten to say please, anyway.

  The second heat duct passage was as bouncy as the first one. Sam still held on to her way too tightly, but she realized now he was just afraid he was going to fall off. He’d be better once they were across and back on a solid deck. Again, Ryit dropped them eight levels before reaching the door on the far side of the duct.

  And then they were in Q1.

  The last time Nicole had been here she’d been worried about Shipmasters and Koffren and Wisps and everything else that she might run into. This time, with the dreamy clouds from Sam’s injection drifting across her mind, she had no worries of any sort.

  At one point along their twisty way she realized she should probably have been memorizing the route, just in case she needed to find her way back. But the quadrant was confusing, and she couldn’t remember all the sector names on the room plaques, and by the time she thought about it, it was probably too late, anyway.

  A pair of Wisps wandered into view, and she thought about calling to them, just to see if they would listen. But Ryit led the way around a corner before she could decide, and they probably wouldn’t have, anyway. She sent one final look at them as she and Sam turned the corner.

  She turned back to find a Koffren standing in the center of the corridor ahead, blocking their path.

  Sam came to a sudden stop. Ryit took another step before he, too, halted. “What are you doing here?” the Shipmaster asked cautiously.

  “Waiting for you,” the Koffren said. “Is this her?”

  “You’re supposed to be ten levels up,” Ryit said stiffly, ignoring the question. “The humans are invading. You’re supposed to be up there to aid in their capture.”

  The Koffren gave out a snort. “We don’t capture humans anymore. We kill them.”

  “We don’t want them dead,” Ryit insisted. “The Fyrantha still needs many repairs, and they’re the only ones who can do the job.”

  “There are many more where these came from,” the Koffren countered. “Perhaps even ones that are not so abysmally stupid.”

  “We’re not stupid,” Nicole objected. “We’re actually pretty bright, some of us.”

  “You are as stupid as you are useless,” the Koffren said bluntly. “Did you truly not realize that the monitor cameras on your stolen drones could be accessed by the Shipmasters? The pitiful attack force moving through Q1 has been tracked since it left Q3. We’ll let them get another few corridors, and once we’ve determined they don’t have even the smallest chance of escape, we’ll destroy them.”

  “Capture them,” Ryit insisted. “We only want to capture them.”

  “We know what you want,” the Koffren said.

  “You agreed to our plan.”

  “And perhaps we shall comply with it. Perhaps not.” The Koffren pointed at Nicole. “I ask again. Is this her?”

  “We cannot linger,” Ryit said. “We’re expected elsewhere.”

  “Perhaps you are,” the Koffren said. “This one is not. Not any longer. She killed two Koffren. Her life is forfeit.”

  “I haven’t killed anyone,” Nicole protested. The Koffren’s sword was still in its sheath, she noticed idly, and he wasn’t carrying any of the stolen greenfire weapons, either. Maybe he wanted to kill her with his bare hands?

  “She’s the Fyrantha’s Protector,” Ryit said. “Do you know what the ship will do if she’s murdered in cold blood?”

  “I don’t care what it does.”

  “Well, you should,” Sam spoke up. “You’re stuck aboard it along with the rest of us. If we get screwed, you get screwed.”

  The Koffren seemed to think about that. “I don’t fear the ship,” he said. “But speak on. What will it do?”

  “We don’t know,” Ryit said. “That’s the point. None of us does. What we do know is that the Fyrantha is very protective of itself and the people and things it considers important. You’ll have your justice—Nevvis has already promised you that. But not now.”

  “Justice is me dead, right?” Nicole asked.

  “Quiet,” Sam muttered, squeezing her arm harder.

  “Just asking,” Nicole murmured, feeling a little annoyed. “Don’t think it’s that hard a question.”

  “I am Justice,” the Koffren said. “I am Revenge and I am Fire.”

  “Wow,” Nicole said. “I’m just Nicole. Your name’s a lot cooler. Can I call you Justice for short? Lot easier.”

  For a long moment the Koffren’s helmet continued to be pointed at her. Presumably he was staring or glaring or something. Then, the helmet turned slightly back toward Ryit. “You say you’re expected,” the Koffren said. “Where?”

  “The teleport room,” Ryit said, pointing down the corridor. “In return for delivering the Protector to us, we’ve agreed to send this other human home.”

  “So that you can do?” the Koffren snarled. “You can send humans wherever you wish? Yet you cannot bring warriors from Shikoffra as we’ve ordered?”

  “Nevvis has already explained the difficulties,” Ryit said, his voice starting to sound strained. “The teleport parameters for Earth were programmed into the ship long before the Lillilli ever found it lying derelict in space.”

  “So they could build and repair,” the Koffren said contemptuously. “So Nevvis has said.” He snorted. “Primitive creatures with little strength and less intelligence. The builders were fools.”

  “The builders had their reasons,” Ryit said, though to Nicole’s foggy ears he didn’t sound like he really believed that. “The point is that Earth is a known system and thus easy to transport people to and from. Shikoffra’s parameters are far less established—which is your doing, I may add—and small perturbations can create severe difficulties in creating a clear pathway for the Wisps to follow.”

  “That lie falls glibly from your mouth,” the Koffren said, his voice dark and menacing. “The same lie, and many of the same words, that Nevvis has tried to gull us with. But we’re not fooled. We may accept your excuses now, but we won’t accept them forever.”

  “I’m certain the procedure will grow clearer and easier with each attempt,” Ryit assured him. “We just need time.”

  “And, of course, your precious humans,” the Koffren said. He eyed them another moment, then stepped unhurriedly out of their path. “But you have a killer to deliver to your master, as well as a traitor to send home. Continue.”

  “Thank you,” Ryit said, taking a hesitant step forward.

  “And I’ll go with you,” the Koffren added.

  For a second Nicole thought Ryit was going to object, maybe to tell the Koffren that his presence wasn’t needed or wanted. But he said nothing, and merely continued walking. The Koffren watched as he went by, continued to watch as Sam somewhat gingerly edged past, his hand still on Nicole’s arm, and then fell in silently behind them. Nicole thought about turning to see if he’d drawn his sword, decided it wasn’t worth the effort.

  Anyway, more important to her right now was how long before they reached the teleport room. If there was going to be much more walking she was going to ask Ryit if he could give her another piggyback ride.

  Ten steps later, they were there.

  Nicole blinked, mildly surprised, as Ryit stopped in front of a door to their right and once again pressed his handy door-opening box against it. Though maybe it shouldn’t have been that surprising—the do
or was the only opening on that side of the corridor, which should have been a clue that there was a big room behind it. The door slid open—an extra-thick door, sliding into an extra-thick wall, Nicole noticed—and together they walked through.

  It was a big room, all right, but not as big as Nicole had expected. Not much bigger than the dining room in their hive, really, though it didn’t look anything like that one. This room was round with a high ceiling, bright overhead lighting, and lots of colored lights laid out along the walls. Between the lights the walls were white with the same silvery threads as on Wisp skin.

  It was, in short, just as she remembered from that terrifying day when she’d been kidnapped from Philly and brought here. It was the teleport room, all right.

  The last time she’d been here, though, she’d missed the fact that on the far side of the room was another tall rectangular section where there weren’t any lights.

  Another door? She turned her head around as the door they’d come in through closed behind the Koffren. No lights there, either. The gap in front of them was indeed probably another door, then.

  “We’re here,” Ryit called.

  Nicole turned back toward him. Sure enough, the empty panel now slid open to reveal a second room.

  She craned her neck, trying to see. The room ahead was also round, a little bigger than the one they were currently standing in, with its curved walls lined with consoles. The control room, probably. On the far side was another vertical rectangle, most likely the door into the other, larger teleport room that Nise had told her about.

  She focused again on the walls where she was currently standing. For sheer number of glowing and flashing lights, she decided, the control room had this one beat.

  A movement caught her eye, and she looked into the control room again as a Wisp appeared around the edge of the doorway. “Hey!” she called, her voice still sounding slurred. “Are you the one in charge?”

  “The Wisp has its orders,” Ryit said, gesturing to Sam. “It just has to double-check the coordinates and it’ll be ready to take you home.”