by Timothy Zahn
Then, calling on Iosif’s mechanical expertise with the Fyrantha’s electronics, she locked it.
“They don’t sound very happy,” Iosif said, pressing his ear against the door. “You sure you wouldn’t rather get them out of here and stash them in one of the barracks rooms down the hall?”
“I don’t know if those doors can be locked,” Nicole said, wincing a little. Even without her ear against the panel she could hear the fists pounding and the faint sound of raised voices. One voice in particular stood out among them, high and shrill and extremely angry. That one was going to be trouble down the road. “If any of the Sibyls wander out—or even if they stay inside and make this much noise—the Koffren would have to be deaf and stupid not to find them.”
“I suppose,” Iosif said. “Hey, they’ve got food, water, and bathrooms in there. They’ll live.”
“It’s a lot better than some places I’ve been,” Nicole said.
“Me, too,” Iosif said, stepping away from the door. “Okay, Sibyls secured. What’s next?”
Nicole peered up the slope toward the aft end of the arena. “We check out the river flow valves,” she said. “We need to make sure they can deliver the volume I’m going to need.” She beckoned to the two Wisps standing motionlessly beside the hive. “Firth, Hagert, you two wait here. We’ll be back in a little while.”
The climb up the rocky slope was every bit as difficult this time as it had been the last few times Nicole had tried it. Fortunately, she knew now how to use the trees and larger bushes for balance and to help pull her along as the slope became ever steeper.
“You said there was a way in through an air duct from the other end?” Iosif asked, his breathing sounding a little strained as they worked their way through a particularly tricky section.
“Yes,” Nicole said. Unlike him, she was panting openly. “But I’m pretty sure the Shipmasters know how I got in that one time, and if they know, the Koffren might, too. It’s narrow and tricky, and we don’t want to get caught in there.”
“Okay,” Iosif said. “Just asking.”
A few minutes later, they were there.
“Nice view,” Iosif commented. He still wasn’t panting, exactly, but his chest was definitely heaving.
Nicole nodded, too winded herself to answer aloud.
It was a nice view, she realized as she gazed out across the arena. The river ran down the slope, churning with fake white water, flowing between the two tall rock bluffs at the end of the riverbed. Once past the bluffs it flowed out onto the sand, eventually meeting up with the roiling ocean. The ocean itself was in the process of receding from high tide, she saw, the white-water breakers fading into foam fifty feet from the mouth of the river, leaving a wide strip of wet sand. By the time of tomorrow’s confrontation with the Koffren and Shipmasters, she estimated, the strip of sand should be a little narrower, probably between thirty and forty feet. On either side of where she and Iosif stood the low trees growing near the hive gradually gave way to bushes, and then reeds, and then dry sand before reaching the wet sand and the ocean.
She nodded to herself. Yes, this would do.
“So how much volume exactly were you looking for?”
Nicole turned around. Iosif was standing beside the rock wall at the end of the arena, leaning precariously out over the racing water and holding back some weeping willow–type branches that had been hanging down beside the river duct.
In the rock behind the branches were two more pipes, one above the other, equal in size to the one out of which the river water was flowing. “Whoa,” she said.
“Yep,” Iosif agreed. “They’re dry right now, but they look like the same kind of pipe that’s feeding the river.” He nodded across the churning water. “And I’m guessing there are two more pipes on the other side.”
“Probably,” Nicole said, shifting her gaze to the similar group of hanging branches on that side. “I think we can take that one on faith.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.” For a moment Iosif poised, then shoved back from the wall and branches and regained his balance on the slope. “The river must have run deeper and wilder back in the old days.”
“There’s certainly enough room for more flow,” Nicole agreed, eyeing the height of the riverbed relative to the water level. “Or else those extra pipes were used when they wanted to clean the trees and bushes and everything else around the channel.”
“With this kind of pressure?” Iosif asked doubtfully. “You’re more likely to strip off the bark than wash them.”
“Maybe these trees need that,” Nicole suggested. “Aren’t there trees on Earth that need a forest fire to come through so they can drop their seeds? I thought one of my teachers said something about that once.”
“Could be,” Iosif said. “Not something we needed to worry about in the Navy. So will this do it?”
“It should be perfect,” Nicole confirmed. “Now all we have to do is figure out how to get the Fyrantha to open up all the spigots.”
“Lucky for me, that’s your job,” Iosif said. “All I have to do is run the gauntlet of Q1 Wisps and get you back to Q4. Any idea whether the local Wisps are listening to you yet?”
“How would I know that?”
“You said you would,” Iosif reminded her, a frown creasing his forehead. “You said you’d know when they were obeying you.”
“Sure,” Nicole said. “If I give them an order and they obey, they’re obeying me.”
Iosif rolled his eyes. “That’s helpful.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Nicole chided. “We’ll have Firth and Hagert with us. Come on, let’s—”
She broke off as Iosif took a quick step forward, grabbed her arm, and pulled her down. “What—?” she gasped as he dropped into a low crouch beside her.
“Company,” he said tersely, nodding down the slope.
She turned her head. Walking the strip of wet sand between the river and the ocean was a Shipmaster, dressed in a kimono instead of the centaur armor.
Behind him, their big feet kicking up sand as they walked, were two Koffren.
“Where’d they come from?” Nicole asked tensely.
“Must have come in from the right,” Iosif said into her ear, his voice barely audible above the roar of the water. “Sorry—I was too busy with the pipes to keep an eye out.”
“Not your fault,” Nicole said. “The question is whether or not they saw us.”
“If they did, they’re playing it damn cool,” he said. “Haven’t looked up here even once since we’ve been watching. Anyway, they’d have come in under the trees.”
“Not necessarily,” Nicole said. “There’s a hidden door in the far right-hand side wall, just inside the tree line. If they came through there, they’d have been on sand most of the time.”
“With nothing to block their view,” Iosif muttered. “Terrific.”
“Still not looking up, though,” Nicole said. “That’s a good sign.”
“Yeah, I’ll tell you what isn’t a good sign.” Iosif pointed past her shoulder. “They’re just carrying swords. No spider guns.”
Nicole frowned, wondering how he knew. The spider guns would be strapped to their right sides, which weren’t visible as the group walked toward the left side of the arena.
And then she got it. The guns themselves might not be visible, but the holster straps would be.
So. No spider guns. If they needed to fight, for any reason, they were planning to kill.
“Oh, hell,” Iosif said suddenly. “The Sibyls. The Shipmasters gave up the Sibyls.”
Nicole felt her heart seize up. No—that couldn’t be. Her scheme depended on her being the only one who could fix the teleport. If the Koffren got hold of the rest of the Sibyls, the entire plan was ruined.
“And your Wisps are down there, too,” Iosif added. “Come on—we’ve got to get them and get out of here.”
Nicole tore her eyes away from the distant Koffren and peered down the slope she and Iosif
had just climbed. Going down would be a lot faster.
And at the speed he was suggesting it would also be lot more dangerous. And a lot noisier.
The rushing water would mask a lot of that noise. But would it be enough?
Worse, there were areas along their route with no trees and just the low bushes. As soon as the Shipmaster and Koffren came around that leftmost stone bluff, all it would take would be a single look upslope and she and Iosif would be dead.
Her two Wisps could immobilize the two Koffren, assuming Nicole could figure out a way to sneak them behind the enemy without being spotted. But they would have to let go eventually, and when they did she would have two more Wisp deaths on her conscience.
She frowned suddenly. As soon as the Shipmaster and Koffren came around that leftmost stone bluff …
“Hold it,” she said, grabbing Iosif’s arm as he half rose to his feet in preparation for the mad sprint ahead. “They’re not here for the Sibyls.”
“Like hell they’re not.”
“They’re not,” Nicole insisted. “Trust me.”
Iosif looked at her, then back down at the Koffren as they disappeared from sight around the bluff. “How do you know?”
“Because there’s another hidden door over there,” Nicole said, pointing to the side wall to their left. “Much closer to the Sibyls’ hive than the one they presumably came in through. If they were heading for the hive, they would have taken that one.”
“Not necessarily,” Iosif said. But he lowered himself back into his crouch.
“Besides, they need the Sibyls alive,” Nicole reminded him. “They can’t afford to just slash their way through the group and hope one of them survives. But you can see they’re not here to take prisoners—no spider guns, no nets, no restraints.”
“And they probably should have brought more guys, too,” Iosif said, still sounding unconvinced. “So why are they here?”
“I think they’re checking out tomorrow’s battlefield,” Nicole said. “Picking their spots, and trying to figure out what I’ve got planned.”
Iosif shook his head. “I hope you’re right. If they see those Wisps, they’re toast.”
“Wisps,” Nicole murmured, nodding as something else suddenly hit her.
“What?”
“Wisps,” Nicole repeated. “The Koffren didn’t bring restraints; but the really best way to capture and immobilize the Sibyls would be…?”
“Yeah,” Iosif said, nodding. “Wisps. A whole raft of Q1 Wisps. Only they didn’t bring any.” He raised his eyebrows. “Maybe because they can’t?”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Nicole said. “Look—they’re heading back.”
The Shipmaster and two Koffren had reappeared between the bluffs, now heading toward the right-hand side of the arena.
Walking more briskly now, too. Apparently, whatever the Koffren had been looking for, they’d found it.
“What now?” Iosif asked.
“We give them another couple of minutes to get fully clear,” Nicole said. “Then we head down—quietly—pick up Firth and Hagert, and head back.”
She smiled tightly. “And with any luck, we’ll run into a couple of Q1 Wisps along the way.”
* * *
They ran into three pairs of Wisps on their way back to the crosswise heat-transfer duct. All three pairs obeyed Nicole’s order to step aside out of their way.
The Shipmasters had come through on their part of the deal. Now it was up to Nicole to deliver her half.
They crossed the duct into Q3 without incident, then the duct into Q4, and were soon back to the relative safety of the hive.
To find that Jeff hadn’t come back.
“They’ve taken him, haven’t they?” Levi muttered, tapping his fingertips restlessly on the dining room table. “Damn it. Damn it, and damn them.” He looked at Nicole as if he wanted to add and damn you.
Nicole didn’t blame him.
Iosif didn’t say anything, but she could tell from his expression that he was thinking the same thing. She didn’t blame him, either.
“He may still be on his way back,” she said. “It might have taken longer than he’d expected to find one of the Koffren and deliver his message.”
“Maybe,” Iosif said. “So what now?”
“As I said before, they’d be foolish to kill or hurt him,” Nicole said. “You saw them scoping out the arena. That proves they can think and plan ahead. They’ll bring him to the meeting tomorrow as extra leverage against me.”
“I hope to God you’re right,” Levi said darkly. “Bad enough we lost Bennett and almost lost Allyce. I’m getting tired of losing people this way.”
“So am I,” Nicole said. Bennett, Allyce, and the two Ponngs.
She looked at the door. Kahkitah was supposed to meet her here …
No. Kahkitah could wait. “Do me a favor, will you?” she asked Levi as she stood up. “I told Kahkitah to meet me here, but I need to go check on something. If he comes while I’m gone, can you ask him to wait?”
“Sure,” Levi said. “I got nowhere else to be right now.”
“Thanks,” Nicole said. Nodding to Iosif, she left the room.
Allyce was lying on one of the recovery beds when Nicole arrived at the medical center. Beside her, on their own beds, were the two Ponngs.
Standing beside the Ponngs, to her surprise, were the four Thii.
“Hello, Nicole,” Allyce said. She sounded tired. “Glad to have you back. Leaving the hive is so risky these days.”
“I know,” Nicole said, wondering if she’d heard about Jeff’s absence. “How are your other patients?”
“We’re recovering quite well,” Moile said from his bed. “Dr. Allyce is a gifted healer.”
“I and the Fyrantha’s medical magic,” Allyce said. “But yes, they’re doing well.”
“Do you need us to do battle for you?” Teika asked hopefully. “We’re recovered enough to do whatever you need.”
“Thank you for the offer,” Nicole said. “But can you even walk right now?”
“Of course,” Moile said with quiet determination. “We can walk, or we can fight. Whatever you need us to do, we will do.”
“I appreciate that,” Nicole said. “But what I need right now is for you to finish recovering. There may be more battles down the road, and we’ll need you there.”
“If the Ponngs cannot serve,” Nise spoke up from the group of Thii, “then perhaps you will permit us to fight in their stead.”
Nicole winced. The Ponngs and Thii had started their lives aboard the Fyrantha trying to kill each other. Since then their animosity had faded into a sort of polite rivalry. But if the Thii were now trying to rub the Ponngs’ noses in their current state of uselessness—
“Don’t worry, Protector,” Moile said. “We’ve discussed the situation at length. Since Teika and I cannot serve you at the moment, we’ve asked Nise and the Thii if they will take our place at your side.”
“A request we were honored to accept,” Nise said.
Nicole blinked. She’d figured the Thii would be happy to comply, but she’d thought there’d be a lot more gloating on their part and a lot more chagrin on the Ponngs’. “I’m…”
“You expected us to battle among ourselves for supremacy of honor, Protector?” Nise asked, a hint of humor in his turntable-scratching voice. “Once, perhaps, we would have.”
“No perhaps about it,” Moile put in. “Once, we were bitter enemies, as you well know.”
“But we have grown in wisdom during our time aboard the Fyrantha,” Nise said, half turning and bowing his head briefly toward the two Ponngs. “Whether Ponng or Thii, you, Protector, are leader of us all. We seek to serve with our hands, our hearts, and our talents, as you see best.”
“Thank you,” Nicole said quietly through a sudden lump in her throat. “That means a lot to me. A lot to all of us.” She nodded to Nise. “And as it happens, I do indeed have an important task for you.” She shifted her
gaze to Moile and Teika. “And an important task for you, too,” she added. Cooperating or not, allies or not, she’d seen enough wounded pride in Trake’s gang to know how it felt. “I think I’ve got the Koffren figured out, but they may still decide the way to hit me is to hit my hive and anyone who’s still here.”
“You mean me?” Allyce asked quietly.
“Some of the others are around here, too,” Nicole said. “The point is that I need you, Moile and Teika, to protect her if anything happens.”
“She also has her Wisp,” Moile pointed out.
“Cambria? Sure,” Nicole said with a shrug. “But a Wisp and two Ponngs are a lot better than just a Wisp.”
“Even when the Ponngs are injured?” Iyulik asked doubtfully.
“Especially when the Ponngs are injured,” Moile said with grim pride. “There is nothing more dangerous than a Ponng in pain.”
“Thank you,” Nicole said, turning to the Thii. “Now, what I need from you—”
“A moment,” Moile cut in. “Can we talk safely in here?”
Nicole frowned. “Why not?”
“Because of me,” Allyce said, a wave of pain and self-reproach crossing her face. “Because of my betrayal in the arena.”
“Allyce—” Nicole began.
“No, it’s all right,” Allyce said. Bracing herself, she got up from her bed and walked unsteadily toward the door. “I’ll never do that again, but I know I can’t ask you to believe me.”
“It’s not a problem—”
“No, let her go,” Nise said. “She’ll feel better knowing that, whatever happens, she won’t be blamed.”
“He’s right,” Allyce said over her shoulder. The door opened—
She jerked backward, nearly losing her balance, as Kahkitah charged in.
“Oh!” the Ghorf gasped, snapping out his hands and catching her shoulders to steady her. “I’m so sorry, Allyce. Are you hurt?”