Queen

by Timothy Zahn

  “Good,” Sam said, eyeing the Koffren still standing behind them by the door. “How long?”

  “Two minutes,” Ryit said. “No more.”

  “Okay,” Sam said, his eyes still on the Koffren. He looked at Nicole, letting go of her arm and letting his hand fall to his side. “Well—”

  “Can I have that pill?” Nicole interrupted, taking a step back.

  Sam frowned at her. “What?”

  “The pill,” Nicole said, pointing at his pocket. “Or the capsule, or whatever it was. The one that’ll make me all better again.”

  “Not yet,” Ryit said before Sam could answer. “Not until we have you safely locked away. Speaking of which…?”

  “Yeah,” Sam said, digging out the round capsule and handing it to the Shipmaster. “Sorry, Nicole.”

  “That’s okay,” Nicole assured him, slipping her hand into her jumpsuit pocket and pulling out a square capsule. “I’ve got my own.”

  Sam’s eyes went wide. “No! Wait—that’s poison!”

  Holding the capsule under her nose, Nicole squeezed and took a deep breath.

  Ryit shouted something and lunged toward her. Sam was a hair behind him, reaching desperately for Nicole’s arm, surely knowing he’d never make it. Beside the door, the Koffren gave off a deep laugh.

  And as the antidote Allyce had mixed up for her blew away the fog and confusion from her mind, Nicole saw that every eye in the room was fixed on her. Which meant no one was paying the slightest attention to the control room.

  Which meant none of them saw the two Thii drop silently to the control room deck from the ventilation grate above.

  Nise’s first spider gunshot slapped across Ryit’s helmet, blinding him. His second wrapped around the Shipmaster’s legs, pinning them together and sending him crashing to the deck. Iyulik’s shots were an exact mirror, except aimed at the Koffren’s helmet and legs. One more shot from both Thii, and their enemies’ arms were similarly pinioned.

  “Are you harmed?” Nise asked as they stepped into the teleport room. Sam had frozen with the first shot; now, at a warning motion from Nise, he stepped away from Nicole, his hands held in front of him, palms outward.

  “I’m fine,” Nicole assured the Thii. “Excellent work, both of you.” She pointed at the door. “Iyulik, seal that door—as many shots as you think it needs. Nise, come with me and we’ll do the other one.”

  “What the hell?” Sam breathed.

  “Later,” Nicole said. “Come on, Nise.”

  She led the way through the control room, past the Wisp standing motionlessly—“I’ll be with you in a minute,” Nicole called to it as they passed—and to the door on the far side. If they could block the door into the other teleport room before the alarm was given, they would have full control over the entire teleport setup, with all the possibilities that would give them. She found the control—it wasn’t as obvious or simple as the Fyrantha’s usual door controls—and keyed it.

  The thick door slid open and they stepped through into another, much larger teleport room, this one more the size of one of the barracks rooms Nicole had been in. Probably the one they used to bring in twenty aliens at a time for their damn testing arenas, she realized. With Nise beside her, she headed toward the far end.

  They’d gotten three steps when the door opened and a Koffren charged into the room.

  eighteen

  Instantly, Nise opened fire. But it was too late. The Koffren that Iyulik had immobilized behind them had been standing still. This one was alerted and on the move, running and zigzagging, and Nicole knew there was no way Nise could take it down in time. “Back!” she snapped, skidding to a halt and reversing direction. “Into the control room!”

  And even as they backed hurriedly through the door, the Koffren swiveled a black tube Nicole hadn’t noticed off his shoulder and into firing position.

  A greenfire weapon.

  And then the door slid shut in front of her, cutting off her view. “Seal it!” she snapped, stepping back out of the way.

  Five seconds and eight spider gun shots later, the door was sealed. For now, anyway. Touching Nise on the arm, Nicole turned and hurried back to the smaller teleport room.

  “So what now?” Sam bit out. “We saw it all. There’s a Koffren with a greenfire weapon out there.”

  “Yeah, thanks for the tip,” Nicole said. “So much for all of them being eight decks up waiting to jump on Jeff’s team.”

  “We knew the Shipmasters were preparing the teleport room,” the Koffren who’d called himself Justice said, his voice mocking. “We didn’t know which entry point would be chosen, so we guarded both.”

  “Yes, you’re all so smart,” Nicole said, looking around. The Thii could escape back the way they’d come, but from Nise’s description the air ducts were way too narrow for her and Sam.

  But if the Wisp in there would follow her orders …

  She hurried back into the control room. “Wisp, can you send a message to another Wisp?” she asked, taking its arm. “It should be nearby, close to the teleport room.”

  There was a moment of silence. No, the Wisp said.

  Nicole hissed out a curse. One of the Q1 Wisps, still under Shipmaster control.

  Still, if she could get Ryit to cooperate, maybe she could still pull this off. Cambria was out there nearby, sent ahead by Jeff to escort her back to Q4 whenever she was ready to retreat. If Cambria could get into the big teleport room and immobilize the Koffren, she could still get away.

  But it was already too late. There was a terrific crash against the control room door, as if someone had thrown himself bodily against it, and as the boom faded away she could hear two or three different voices. The Koffren planning to ambush Jeff had made it down here way faster than she’d expected, and were clearly determined to get to her.

  Cursing again, she hurried back to the smaller teleport room. “Ryit, how many charges are there in those greenfire guns?”

  “Don’t tell her,” Justice bit out. “Let her fear they will soon cut their way inside and deliver her destruction.”

  Nicole clenched her teeth. She didn’t have time for this crap. “Ryit—”

  “You don’t have to say,” Iyulik spoke up. “Just hold up the appropriate number of fingers.”

  Nicole looked at Justice, belatedly remembering that the spider shot on his helmet had effectively blinded him. Iyulik was right: it was time for a bluff. “Three?” she said. “Good—that’s what I thought.”

  “Shipmaster, your life is forfeit!” the Koffren thundered, straining uselessly against the spider goo. “Aiding and consorting with the enemy—”

  “Oh, stuff it,” Nicole said scornfully. “He didn’t say anything. But thanks for confirming my guess.”

  Justice made a final lunge and subsided. “You are dead,” he snarled.

  “Yeah, and you can stuff that, too,” Nicole said, running the numbers quickly through her head. The Koffren had stolen six greenfire weapons, which at three shots each meant they’d started with eighteen total. They’d spent nine of them killing the Wisps that had been guarding Trake and Bungie, leaving another nine. Back in Q3 she’d seen how relatively little damage the Shipmaster’s shot had done to the corridor wall, and the walls and doors around the teleport section looked a lot thicker and tougher than that.

  Bottom line: the Koffren weren’t getting in here any time soon.

  On the other hand, the door wouldn’t last forever, either. The tool lockers scattered all over the ship held a variety of cutting tools, and even if the Koffren couldn’t figure out how to use them the Shipmasters probably could. She’d bought them some breathing space, but it was hardly time to kick back and relax.

  “You have a plan,” Nise said quietly. It was a statement, not a question.

  Nicole looked around. The Fyrantha’s teleport room …

  “Actually, I do,” she said over her shoulder as she headed back into the control room. “Watch them. I’ll be right back.”

/>   The Wisp was standing where she’d left it. She stepped up to it and took its arm. Can you teleport me from here to some other point inside the Fyrantha? she thought toward it. To our hive in Q4, or even into the Q4 arena?

  No.

  Why not? You teleport people billions of miles away, don’t you?

  The teleport system can send and receive from distant places. It cannot teleport objects or beings within the Fyrantha itself.

  Nicole chewed at her lip. Her whole escape plan from this little trip depended on the Wisps being able to send her back to Q4. If they couldn’t, this day was going to end very badly.

  Unless …

  You were ordered to send Sam back to Earth? she asked.

  Yes.

  Good. On my command, you’ll teleport him to Philadelphia, to the same spot where he was when he was taken.

  I cannot guarantee the same spot.

  Nicole rolled her eyes. Then just somewhere in Philadelphia, she said. Once you’ve left him there, you’ll immediately come back. Can you do that?

  Yes.

  Good. Get ready to do so.

  She stepped into the doorway. “Sam? Get in the middle of the room. You’re going home.”

  “What?” Sam asked, frowning.

  “You heard me. The Wisp here is going to take you back to Philly.”

  “But—”

  “It’s what you always wanted, right?” Nicole cut him off. “Fine. So get your butt to the middle of the room and get ready. Wisp? Come here.”

  “But I assumed—I mean—”

  “You assumed you were going to be screwed again,” Nicole said as the Wisp glided past her. “Yeah, I know. Wisp? Pick him up and take him back to Earth.”

  Obediently, the Wisp glided past her. Sam watched it approach, a mass of conflicting emotions chasing each other across his face. “I never—”

  “I’ll say good-bye for you,” Nicole promised, backing up into the doorway between the teleport and control rooms and throwing a quick look at the consoles. The pattern of lights seemed mostly stationary at the moment. Presumably, that was about to change. She looked back to see the Wisp step behind Sam and wrap its arms around him. “Go,” she said, watching them out of the corner of her eye as she turned her main attention back to the consoles.

  She wondered if there would be a flash. There wasn’t. She wondered if there would be a bang or hiss or sizzle. Nothing. No light, no sound. The Wisp spread its butterfly wings, and the two of them simply vanished.

  The monitor lights on the consoles, on the other hand, went crazy.

  Really crazy. Suddenly everything seemed to be in motion: lights flicking on and off, lines of lights forming patterns, then dissolving and reforming into new patterns, numerical displays sweeping through numbers faster than she could keep track of them.

  Mentally, she counted out the seconds, wondering how long it would take. Her hazy memory of her trip from Philly to the Fyrantha would suggest that it had taken several minutes.

  “Your companions will still die,” Justice snarled into the silence. “The Koffren will attack, and they will die. Then you will be alone.”

  “How many Koffren would that be, exactly?” Nicole asked absently, her eyes and mind still on the teleport controls.

  Justice snorted. “You wish to know our numbers.”

  Nicole shrugged. “Don’t see why that’s a problem. We’re all dead, anyway, remember? I figure there’s maybe six of you. Sorry—four of you. Forgot we killed two.”

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw him once again furiously strain at the spider goo. A corner of it seemed on the edge of coming loose—

  And was again sealed as Iyulik casually fired another spider shot across the Koffren’s chest. He spat out a word that Nicole’s translator ignored, and then subsided. “There are more than enough of us for your companions,” he said.

  “They attack now,” Ryit murmured.

  Abruptly, the light show again froze in place. Twenty-eight seconds, by Nicole’s count. A lot less than she’d thought it would be. “I hope they have fun,” she said, restarting her count. She reached five; then, the skittering light pattern resumed. “Well, I’ve got you, plus the three Koffren—maybe four by now?—in the other teleport room. That and the number Jeff’s seeing right now should give us a good count of your total numbers.”

  “How many last breaths do you expect us to give him, that he’ll be able to whisper that number to you?”

  “Lots of last breaths, probably,” Nicole said. “Jeff and the others aren’t there.”

  “What?” Ryit demanded. “Of course they are. We watched them enter Q1.”

  “Sure,” Nicole agreed. “You saw the whole force gather just inside the crosswise heat-transfer duct from Q3, get their equipment organized, then head in behind the drones. Probably also heard them talking to each other as they moved.”

  “Shipmaster?” Justice prompted, a dark threat to his voice. “Shipmaster?”

  Ryit made a strange sound, half throat-clearing, half whimper. “They aren’t there,” he said. “The drones … the human intruders are no longer following them.”

  Again, Justice tried to break free of his restraints. Again, all it bought him was another spider shot from Iyulik. Nicole’s mental count reached twenty-nine—

  As quietly as he’d disappeared, the Wisp was back.

  Nicole nodded to herself as the Wisp’s wings folded back in place. So each trip to Earth took about half a minute. It would still be tricky, but it should work.

  She hoped.

  “I imagine Jeff’s having a good laugh right now,” she said, beckoning the Wisp and the two Thii toward the control room. The aliens moved obediently toward her, stepping past and continuing on into the control room. Nise paused at the entrance, keeping his eyes and spider gun watchfully on Ryit and the Koffren.

  The Wisp didn’t follow. Nicole gestured again, got the same nonresponse, and walked over to it. She took its arm—I need you to take me to Earth, she thought toward it. Can you do that?

  I have been given no such instructions.

  You just took another human there, she reminded it. This is just an extension of that same order.

  The Wisp was silent a moment. You are the Fyrantha’s Protector?

  I am.

  You can give orders to the Fyrantha?

  Nicole considered. She hadn’t exactly told the ship where to go, or what to do when it got there. On the other hand, she had given orders to open doors and turn off the water flow in the Q1 arena. Close enough. Yes.

  Then I will accept your request as part of my orders.

  Good, Nicole said. Here’s what you’re going to do. You’ll take me to Earth. Then you’ll bring me back; but you’ll bring me back to the other teleport receiver room, the one on the other side of the control room. Can you do that?

  You wish to leave the Fyrantha, travel to Earth, then immediately return?

  Yes, but I want to return to the other teleport receiver room.

  I understand.

  Good, Nicole said. Can you do that?

  I can. Are you ready to proceed?

  In a moment, Nicole said. I first need a moment to instruct my allies.

  She released its arm and stepped into the control room. “Do you have a plan for your escape?” Nise asked, sounding a little anxious. “We can leave through the air duct, but you won’t fit in there.”

  “I know,” Nicole said, keeping her voice down. The last thing she could afford was Ryit and the Koffren eavesdropping. “Here’s what we’re going to do.” She pointed out at the Wisp. “The Wisp is going to take me back to Earth, then bring me right back here, only to the other teleport room. Now, the indicator lights in here will go crazy during—”

  “A moment,” Iyulik interrupted, his voice suddenly stiff. “You wish to go in there? The place where even now our enemies try to break into this room?”

  “Right, except that they’ll be so focused on the door they’re trying to break into that
they won’t even notice I’m there,” Nicole told him. At least she hoped that was how it would play out. “Anyway. The lights in here will go crazy twice, once while we’re heading to Earth, the other time when we’re on our way back. Understand? Lights mostly stationary, then flashing like crazy, stationary, flashing, stationary.”

  “What if they see you?” Iyulik persisted.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll have a little insurance,” Nicole said. “Or you will, anyway.”

  She stepped over to the nearest console and crouched down in front of it. Four twists of quick-release bolts later she had the protective screen off, exposing the maze of electronics behind it. “As soon as the second flashing part is over—and make sure it’s really over—get into each of these consoles and pull out one or two of these small blocks.” She touched a rectifier simplex and pantomimed pulling it out. “Dump all of them in one of your empty food bags, climb back into the vent, and then get back to Jeff in Q4 as fast as you can.”

  “This is a dangerous plan,” Nise said. “Not just for you personally, but for the entire war effort.”

  War effort. The words sent a shiver up Nicole’s back. But he was right. They really were engaged in a war here.

  “Protector?” Ryit called from the teleport room. “Where are you? What are you doing?”

  “I can’t say I’m thrilled by it myself,” Nicole admitted. “But unless you have a better plan for getting me out of here, I think we’re stuck with this one.” She jabbed a finger toward the teleport room. “Let’s get to it.”

  “Very well,” Nise said, still sounding unhappy.

  “Protector?” Ryit called again.

  “What?” Nicole called back. “No—never mind. I’m not talking to you right now.” She raised her eyebrows. “You two ready?”

  Nise and Iyulik exchanged looks. “Yes,” Nise said.

  “Good.” Nicole beckoned to the Wisp. “It’s time. Come with me.”

  She led the way back into the teleport room. Silently, she pointed the Wisp to the center of the room. It glided into position, and she backed into its arms. She felt the familiar paralysis, saw peripherally that it had opened its wings …

  The teleport room vanished into a complete and utter blackness.