by Gini Koch
“I hope for your sake that you’re willing to call this proof, Zanell. ’Cause I think, if you really worked at the old ‘I’m sorry I treated you as a lesser person than myself and didn’t accept that you are a strong leader and an exceptional warrior’ speech, Fancy might consider taking you back. And, so far, I’m quite fond of her, and not nearly as fond of you.”
He stood up slowly. I kept the point of his spear at his throat the whole way. “The Nihalani did not lie.”
“I’m happy to prove my Godhood, too,” Christopher said. “Because this is a delay we really can’t afford. Even Gods like to sleep.”
True enough, and I hadn’t had any. Had to assume no one in the village was sleeping anymore, and Jeff, Chuckie, and the others hadn’t had enough rest, either. I pulled the spear back, then tossed it to Zanell.
He caught it and smiled at me. Then he spun it and slammed the butt of the spear onto the ground next to him. “You have our word, Shealla—we are here to assist you and the rest of the Gods, not to harm any others, let alone those who were wrongly cast out of their clans.”
Nice to know he was on the side of Team Outcast. Really wanted to hear some music all of a sudden. OutKast’s “Hey Ya!” would kind of fit with the mood. At least my mood. Figured now wasn’t the time to not be paying full attention to everyone else, and chose instead to turn to Fancy. “Your thoughts?”
“Zanell keeps his word.” She stood up even straighter. “And I keep mine.” With that she spun and stalked off down the trail.
“Wow, dude, you really pissed her off, didn’t you?”
Zanell sighed. “Yes, Shealla, I did.”
“We need to move fast,” Christopher said. “You grab Fancy and I’ll have everyone else link up. Heading back to Jeff or the village?”
“You take them to the village, I’ll go to Jeff. The Poofs should keep Usha under control.”
“We can hope. If you’re not back in the village within fifteen minutes, though, I’ll come check on you guys.”
“Sounds wise.” I trotted off and caught up with Fancy. Took her paw in mine and we took off at my version of hyperspeed.
“This seems . . . slower,” she said, as I felt people go by us. Normally you couldn’t notice an A-C zipping around you. So either Christopher was tired, or there were just so many bodies he was dragging along so close to us that I sensed them. Figured it could very well be both.
“It is. Binalla goes a lot faster than any of the rest of us can. So, can we trust Zanell?”
“Yes. You were correct—he and I were . . . involved. But he could not accept that I would continue to rule and protect my clan, even if we were to join as mates.”
“Think he’s come around to a different way of thinking?”
“We’ll find out, I suppose. But if you and Binalla were serious about wanting to put me on the throne, Zanell may object in a very strong manner.”
“And then again, he may not. Guess we’ll find out,” I said as we turned down the path to get back to Jeff.
We hadn’t been gone all that long, but we’d been gone long enough for Jeff and Chuckie to have started interrogating the prisoner. Had no idea if they’d managed to get anything out of her, but since Jeff could read her emotions, at least we had a hope of it.
And it was clear that they’d been trying. Jeff and Chuckie both were inside the Poof Circle, the Poofs were still Large and In Charge, and the five Lecanora potential traitors were still cowering between Bruno and Ginger and pleading with King Benny.
Got the distinct feeling that Chuckie had been using some of the nastier C.I.A. techniques, because the Lecanora were still crying and Usha looked a little worse for wear. Apparently the Ancients didn’t regenerate like the rest of those I’d met from this solar system.
Wondered if any of the natives on this planet had faster regeneration. Hadn’t really had time to see if they had more than one heart, or, in the case of the katyhoppers, if they even had a heart or if something else powered their internal engine. And thankfully we hadn’t had anyone hurt that I knew of, so we hadn’t had a live field test.
Jeff and Chuckie looked relieved to see us but also worried. “You help King Benny handle his people,” I told Fancy. “See if you believe they’re innocent, and, if so, try to calm them down.”
“Calming them either way seems the right course,” she said, as she left me and went to the other Lecanora. She gave Ginger a pet and stroked Bruno’s head.
“Where’s Christopher?” Jeff asked me by way of hello, as he left the Poof Circle to come over to me.
“Nice to see you, too. He’s fine. Four of the doors were secure. We found the, ah, Nihalani at the last one we checked. They came with what I’m calling the Black Wolverine Clan and a couple of guys who look like they were at least originally part of King Benny’s first clan. Christopher took James, Tim, Tito, Brian, and Kevin, along with all the Black Wolverines, back to the village. Fancy and I came here to get you all and get everyone back to the village, too.”
“Good.” Jeff now looked more relieved.
Pulled him away from the others, though not so far that we couldn’t see them all clearly, and got a hug, which was nice. “Could you not feel me or Christopher when we were gone? We couldn’t read each other’s minds, so we think we are or were beyond the katyhopper’s range.”
“I’ve really had to concentrate on her,” he jerked his head toward Usha. “She’s not trained all that well, especially against a proficient C.I.A. operative and an empath, but she’s got so many emotions roiling around in there it’s honestly hard to differentiate. Chuck doesn’t think it’s a technique, by the way—he just thinks she’s emotionally unstable, possibly from having to pretend to be a Lecanora male for so long.”
“Is the Empire she’s working with the Z’porrah like I guessed?”
“Yeah, we’ve done verification. There’s more going on, though. We haven’t gotten it out of her, but she sincerely believes she’s one agent out of many and she also sincerely believes that there’s a world of hurt coming. What exactly is coming, though, we haven’t gotten. Chuck thinks she may not actually know, but we aren’t sure yet.”
“How is Chuckie?” Had to ask because he really looked seriously pissed.
“Ready to use her as a punching bag. And I’m half-tempted to let him.”
Thought about this. Jeff didn’t normally advocate allowing one of us to just attack a prisoner. However, he cared a lot more about Chuckie than he did Usha’s well-being. “She isn’t the right stand-in for Cliff. Trust me, if we need to allow him to let loose, I have a great target in mind.”
“The so-called king, yeah.” He sighed. “We all need sleep. Badly, by now. But I don’t know what we can do with her here. I have no idea where you found those handcuffs, but she’s spent the entire time you’ve been gone working to get loose from them. I can guarantee that she’s going to succeed somewhere in the next few hours, if not sooner.”
“We could just kill her. Or let the Poofs eat her. Same thing, really.”
Jeff stared at me. “Chuck said the same thing.”
“Mom’s training, most likely. Not that my mother regularly advocates murdering people in cold blood or anything, but Usha’s a dangerous liability. We have no way of containing her securely and we also have no one to negotiate her return with.”
“Why don’t we?” Jeff asked. “Someone put her in place. She firmly believes she has superiors—this is not someone acting alone.”
Stared at him as he motioned for Chuckie to come over and join us. “Wow. You know, you’re right. I keep on thinking it was LaRue who stationed her here, and even if it was, she might care about Usha.” Hugged Chuckie as he reached us, then leaned back against Jeff.
Caught Chuckie up on who we’d found, what their God Name was, and everything else. Jeff reiterated that killing Usha might not be our best choice.
“LaRue might care about her, Kitty’s right,” Chuckie said when we finished. “And by the way, most of the Lecanora in the Blue part that Christopher and I saw were otters. Not all, but most.”
“Good to know where King Benny’s probably originally from. But back to the big elephant in our room. More than LaRue potentially knowing her—Usha is an Ancient but she’s working for the Z’porrah. Meaning that LaRue’s not the only traitor the Ancients have been blessed with over the years.”
“Meaning the Ancients are still alive as a race,” Chuckie said. “We’ve been working under the assumption that their race died out, but events are showing that not to be the case. The Z’porrah are direct enemies of the Ancients, and they’re still going strong, as we learned all too well. That the Z’porrah are working in secret in this solar system indicates that their enemy—who is presumably on our side, in no small part because we’re their ‘creations’—is still very much alive and active.”
“That’s true. LaRue came to Earth after the other, for us original, Ancient ship had crash-landed. We now have proof that they have Faster Than Light travel, meaning she didn’t leave hundreds of years earlier—she left long enough ago that communications between the Ancient home world and the ship that crash-landed on Earth crossed in transit, but otherwise, they’re still around and kicking. Us, mostly.”
Jeff shook his head. “The Ancients are at least helping both our solar systems, not trying to destroy them.”
“But it explains why the Free Women look like they do,” Chuckie said. “Their original strains mixed with Ancients, and clearly the Ancient blood is the strongest.”
“Genetics rule. But the eyes are telling—I’ve never seen a Free Woman with all-black eyes, and since I’ve now seen two Amazonian Agents with them, I’m going to take a leap of faith and say that the Ancients have eyes like that.” Meaning LaRue’s eyes were all black in reality.
“Meaning LaRue’s eyes are all black when she’s not shapeshifted,” Chuckie said, clearly reading my mind again.
Knew without asking that Christopher and a katyhopper were nearby. So I was unsurprised to see Christopher and Saffron round the corner. “I gave you fifteen minutes,” Christopher said as they reached us. “Everything okay?”
While Jeff and Chuckie shared our latest thoughts with Christopher, I sidled over to Saffron. “Any chance you can mind read Usha over there and see what she knows?”
Saffron waved her antennae. Then she shuddered, and waved them again. Destruction was coming. Destruction for all of us, the planet, and possibly the entire solar system.
And it was coming soon.
CHAPTER 53
MOTIONED THE GUYS OVER. “Um, Saffron says that things are dire.”
She waved her antennae again. Time was indeed of the essence, and she felt we needed to hurry up, because soon was going to come faster than we wanted. On the plus side, Saffron felt we had time to sleep, regroup, and possibly even raid the castle and visit the All Seeing Mountain. So soon was, apparently, a relative term.
“Ah. However, I guess, we still have time to do all the things we’d like to do here, like taking in the sights and taking over the castle.” Managed not to ask why she felt this was helpful information, then reminded myself that it was her world and people who were in danger.
“I realize the katyhoppers, just like everyone else, are in danger, but how does this help us?” Chuckie asked, reading my mind again. Yep, we had a katyhopper nearby.
Saffron waved her antennae again. Got the impression she’d just heaved a huge katyhopper sigh.
“Ah, gotcha. I asked Saffron to read Usha’s mind. She was confirming what you guys got out of Usha. But Usha doesn’t know the whole plan. However, she’s been activated—she was stationed in the castle, working as one of the King’s Guard. And the king is who activated her to try to find and raid Haven.”
“So that confirms that the king is a puppet for the Z’porrah, or whoever else is against the freedom of this planet,” Chuckie said. “Honestly, the big question is why? Why is this planet important to anyone? Especially since no one else seems to have discovered the special abilities the katyhoppers and strautruch possess. And since there’s no mining, it seems unlikely that anyone’s figured out that the core of this world is valuable, either.”
“Which leads to my question—do we storm the castle first, or do we go to the top of the All Seeing Mountain as our next stop?”
“Mountain,” Jeff said. “It’s the one place none of us have been, even fleetingly. Unless James or the others have been.”
Christopher shook his head. “They haven’t. And they haven’t seen Jamie or Paul, either. Or Abigail, Rahmi, or Rhee.”
“So they’re either in the Greenland area, on the top of the mountain, or they’re not on this planet.” Didn’t know what I wanted to wish for, other than having Jamie back in our arms right this moment, which I knew wasn’t going to happen.
Tried not to panic about her, but I was tired, and the panic started to come anyway. Jeff’s hand was on the back of my neck, gently massaging, in a flash. “It’ll be fine, baby,” he said quietly. “We’ll find her and she’ll be fine.”
“Jamie has ACE inside her,” Chuckie reminded me. “ACE is allowed to protect himself, and therefore Jamie, and we all know he’s not going to let anything happen to Paul, either.”
“The best thing we can do for all of them is get some rest, get some food, and then get going,” Christopher said. Rightly. “I realize we ate already, but I’ve expended a lot of energy and the guys, excuse me, Nihalani are starving, and the rest of you look like you could use another meal, too.”
“Yes, but we’re back to the issue of what we do with Usha, though,” I pointed out. “Jeff seems to be against killing her, and using her as a bargaining chip of some kind does make sense.”
“They don’t have prisons or anything like them here,” Christopher said. “I asked when I took the others back to the village.”
“This world is so unlike ours, or the others in this system. I don’t get it. The moment you look closely, nothing seems normal. Oh, and Christopher, did you notice that the sound of water anywhere we went wasn’t too loud?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I just sort of added it to the list of things that are strange about this planet, though.”
Jeff looked around, and moved the five of us away from the others so there was no way they would hear us. “Saffron, I’m actually sure that your people already know or suspect this. But in case you don’t, this is just a guess of mine. However, based on everything we’re seeing, I think this world was specifically created, versus evolving like the rest of the populated planets we know about have.”
Saffron waved her antennae. “She agrees. The Matriarchs suspect this, but haven’t been able to prove it. The general belief, by the way, is that the Father of the Gods created this world in his image.”
“So just like our creation stories on Earth,” Chuckie said.
I nodded, but I was still thinking about what I’d said. I knew Algar had a vested interest in this planet. That he was the Father of the Gods was a safe bet, especially because he’d been hanging out on Alpha Four for millennia, cleaning the Royal Family’s laundry and such and providing them with whatever their version of Coca-Cola was at the drop of a hat, which had to have gotten dull.
Really wanted a Coke badly now. Pushed the desire to ask my purse for one aside and went back to thinking.
So he sees a planet in the solar system. A planet with a core that’s hugely valuable all over the galaxy, meaning a planet ripe for mining and destruction—which would be likely to destroy all the life on said planet.
And a planet whose entire core was made up of valuable elements that had no indigenous life on it that could fight back or plead their case was a planet that was probably going to end up a husk or destroyed. The results of which could negat
ively affect the entire solar system’s orbits and such, not to mention giving whoever was mining the place all the destructive materials they’d ever need to wipe everyone else and themselves out of existence.
Just like Mephistopheles had.
Normally, though, valuable core or not, it’s not a big deal—there’s life on the planet, after all. In some instances that wouldn’t be the case. But the beings in this solar system who are in charge are also being influenced by Algar, meaning they’re likely to leave this planet and its people alone. If those people are showing clear signs of sentience.
Maybe the life-forms on this planet aren’t progressing like the others, though. Maybe there’s no progression that’s possible for them or the planet in reality. Maybe the core of the world makes normal evolution impossible for some reason, or taints the soil in some way, so that the world would never be any place where sentient life could blossom and evolve up the brain food chain.
But Algar knows how to fix all that. Sure it’s a risk, but there are so many populated planets in this system, who’s going to notice one more? He’s bored, he’s not supposed to interfere—based on his own rules, versus the Black Hole Universe People’s rules—but is it really interference? Not if he does it fairly. Plus, this could be how he’s planning to make up for allowing Mephistopheles to destroy multiple worlds and billions of lives—by not allowing that to be repeated in this solar system.
Ergo to be fair, he uplifts every single creature on the planet, meaning all of them now will have free will. Some will evolve past this initial uplift and some won’t, but that’s okay because it’s a fair fight at the start.
He creates a special continent for them, or alters the makeup of the continent they’re on. He makes special places on that continent for them, too. For whatever reason, he wants the continent to be strangely set up, but he can swing that as well by making this planet conform and look just enough like some planets near the galactic core, at least superficially, that seeing one out here won’t cause too much speculation from the various superconciousnesses and Black Hole Universe People who might notice. And he seeds each place with something special in some way. Some good things, some bad things, maybe. Areas better to live in—like Haven and the Purple Lands—along with others that aren’t as well set up initially.