by Gini Koch
The pilot fiddled. “I told them we were under their rule and they are responding, Lakin.”
“Good.” Lakin looked at me. “The longer the Jewel of Power,” he pointed to the circlets I was holding, “is not on my head, the clearer I can think. I cannot remember why we are at war with anyone.”
“Does anyone on my team wearing these circlets feel angrier or more controlled by an outside influence than normal?” Everyone shook their heads.
“No, Shealla,” Fancy said. “Perhaps they were not made to work on us as they work on these Rapacians.”
“Brain waves could be different, yeah.” Meaning they were using Chuckie as a battery and Jeff as the spark to keep that battery operating. Meaning I really needed to get into Trevik’s ship.
I’d be willing to go in as a “prisoner exchange” or something, but there was no way to do this if they weren’t hearing anything we said. Thought about what 2.0 had suggested. “What if we land on the planet? Will they come down to talk?”
Lakin shook his head. “No. They will shoot us from the air.”
So Reader had called that one right. “How do we get them to talk versus shoot?”
“I have no—” He stopped himself and cocked his head, which looked very Regular Bird. As with King Benny and his antlers, I controlled the Inner Hyena. “There is one way. If my ship and Otari’s ship were to fly back into the fight outside of this planet’s solar space, Trevik might follow.”
“They are my ships now, but we’ll argue semantics later. You’re suggesting we engage again with the rest of the fleet, or rather, fleets that are out there?”
“It’s risky, but yes. Trevik would need to open communications channels to speak to our allies.”
“And, before we do this, just who are your allies?”
He looked a little shocked. “You don’t know?”
“If I knew, would I ask?”
“Maybe. You are strange creatures.”
“We’re seriously pissed creatures on a deadline, too, let’s not forget that. Your allies, who are they?”
“We support the Planet’s Rights Faction. There are beings from all the inhabited worlds who fight with us against the Imperial Monarchists.”
“Wow, I’m on the side of the Imperial Army this time? That kind of makes you think of Star Wars in a whole new way, doesn’t it?” Looked around at the room of blank faces, including those in the electronic cage. “Or it could just be me. So, who was in the triangular ship that you guys blew up that fell into the oceans of this planet?”
“That was a noncombat ship from Alpha Seven, coming to provide humanitarian aid.”
Figured the universal translator had really had to knock itself out translating whatever Lakin had actually said into “humanitarian.”
“So, you guys shot an unarmed, noncombatant, nonthreatening ship out of space? Any reason why?”
“No one is allowed to be neutral.”
“Got it. Officially, you guys suck. What do the Alpha Seven beings look like?”
He shrugged. “War isn’t pleasant. One of their other ships arrived on the planet without incident. And they claim to be avian in their makeup, but they are nothing like us. No feathers, no wings, no claws, just smooth skins, flippers, and wide, flat feet.”
Confirmation that those who’d saved the Lecanora in the castle were from Alpha Seven. Their first ship must have landed out of sight of the continent, and they clearly had super-duper hyperspeed, which, under the circumstances, was good. They seemed like they were on the side of the people on the planet, so leaving them down here wasn’t going to be a terrible choice.
“Okay, I want the communications channels open between us and Otari’s ship, and I want them open now.”
The copilot nodded. “On speaker.”
“James, you guys okay?”
“So far, but not if I have to keep on flying around the planet. There are only so many ways to go, despite what math and science would tell you. There’s no other continent, by the way, just ocean, ocean, and more ocean. Oh, and one fully intact giant triangle, which is a spaceship that’s floating, somehow, just out of view of the continent.”
Brought him up to speed fast on what was going on. “So, we’re going to leave the Alpha Seven Penguins here, because they’re clearly here to help.”
“And we’re going to head up into the battle in ships that all our allies know to be their enemies’? Manned in your case by people you can’t trust and in my case with someone we only sort of trust?”
“I’m in the room,” 2.0 said.
“And we’re going to just hope that the ship that has everyone else in it, including people we know are being tortured, is going to follow us up there?”
“Got it in one. Or, I guess, two or three. But anyway, yes. Off we go into the wild blue yonder. And all that.”
Reader sighed. “I knew I should have stayed in bed instead of going to that meeting.”
CHAPTER 86
THE SHIPS READIED to leap up into space. This was great in the overall scheme of things, but not great in the areas that mattered most to me. But I had no way to get near, let alone into, the third Rapacian ship.
My iPod, which had been playing “Electric Worry” on low and repeat, suddenly changed songs to “Sparkle” by No Doubt.
“Thanks,” I said quietly. Pulled The Clarence Clone aside. “I’m going to be leaving this part of the ship. I need you to keep an eye on Usha and Lakin both. If they try anything against anyone else, you need to stop them.”
“You don’t want me to come with you?” He sounded disappointed.
“No, I need someone here who can back up Fancy and the others. You’re the strongest and the fastest, so I need you to stay here and protect all our friends.”
He brightened up. “They’re my friends, too, now?”
Patted his arm. “Yes, I believe they are.” Trotted over to the Dazzlers. “Serene, need you for a minute. Girls, make sure that the pilot and copilot are doing what we want, and give Fancy a break if possible. The Clarence Clone will help you, as the others will, I’m sure.”
Lorraine gave me a suspicious look. “What are you up to?”
“Tell you if it works.” Grabbed Serene and headed for the door. Boz came with us. Decided telling her not to was silly. Headed for the prisoner containment areas and reached the mess hall one first. “Serene, can you make one of the cages cover everyone in here?”
“I think so. But I’ll need to be in there.” She fiddled with it for a moment, while the Matriarchs on guard readied to open the door. Serene nodded, they opened, then she stepped in and hit one of the white buttons, but not the button she’d used in the command area.
Sure enough, the glowing cage went around everyone in the room other than her. She backed out and the Matriarchs locked the door in their own special way.
We headed for the other prisoner containment area and once again the cage worked. Boz shared that all the prisoners remained contained in all areas. We headed back, but I stopped halfway between the prisoner containment room and the mess hall.
“Kitty, if we have to put anyone else in a cage I’ll have to let one of these go.”
“I’m hoping we won’t have to. I’m going to try to get over to the other ship, the one Jeff and the others are on. I don’t think they have time to wait for us to fight and negotiate a peace treaty.”
“How are you going to do that? This ship doesn’t have that kind of tech on it.”
“I’m hoping I have the right kind of tech on me.” Looked into my purse. “Poofies, Kitty would like a word.”
Several Poofs looked up at me sleepily. None of these were Poofs I knew. Had no idea where “my” Poofs were, but hoped they were trying to protect my family and friends. Wasn’t positive, but it seemed likely that these were the Alpha Four Poofs taking a breather.
“Kitty needs
to go save Jeff, and Chuckie, and everyone else. But in order to do that, Kitty needs a Z’porrah power cube. I know they’re being kept far away for safekeeping, but I think many people are going to die if Kitty can’t get a hold of a cube.”
Lots of cute looks, some embarrassed mewling, no power cubes.
“Um, can you ask one of the Earth Poofs for an assist? It’s kind of dire.”
More cute looks, more embarrassed mewls, still no power cubes. They didn’t know where the cubes were, or what they were. These were definitely Alpha Four Poofs. Why they’d been kept in the dark I couldn’t fathom, but my guess was one word and that word was Algar.
I couldn’t tell them to ask Algar for a cube, not only because I literally couldn’t, but because now wasn’t the time to have the “Our Elves are one dude who’s from a really wacked-out universe” chat with anyone. My iPod switched to “Try” by Pink. Clearly it was time to pull out what I hoped was the Big Gun.
“I can’t save Jamie without one, I don’t think.”
Mous-Mous appeared, mewing angrily, but the Poof wasn’t angry with me. Had the feeling the other Poofs were getting an Anti-Free Will lecture but couldn’t be sure. Then the Poof jumped out of my purse, went large, hacked up a power cube, and went back to small.
Picked up the cube and the Poof. The cube was glittering but not sparkling, as nonsensical as that seemed. However, there was a difference, and I knew the thing had to sparkle to work. “Thanks.” Nuzzled Mous-Mous. “Is Jamie alright?”
The Poof mewed. She was okay for now. Mous-Mous gave me another nuzzle then disappeared. So much for any additional help with the power cube.
“Do you want me to go with you?” Serene asked.
“No. You and James are in charge, which is nice since you’re each on different ships. But I need you here, running things as the Head of Imageering and making sure our tentative alliances and new friends all remain intact. Besides, if this doesn’t work, then it’s only one more of us captured, not two.”
Boz waved her antennae. She wasn’t sure how far her range was for mind reading, and it was about to be severely tested. Not only due to distances about to be traveled, and the sheer number of minds the Matriarchs were about to experience, but because she had no idea how well their powers would work once they were far enough removed from their homeland. She was, therefore, offering to go along with me.
“Thank you, but no. As with Serene, I need you here. Serene, Boz and the other katyhopper Matriarchs are awesome, so let them help you, too.”
“You want us doing our best to negotiate a cease-fire, right?” Serene asked.
“Right. Good luck with that.”
She smiled. “I’ve been reading up on a variety of Earth methods for this. Is it okay if we make a stop on the planet before we leave it, though?”
“Um, the impression everyone has is that those in Trevik’s ship will blast you if you do.”
Boz waved her antennae and asked me to give Serene a waterfruit. I complied. Without feeling too regretful about it.
“Eat this. I think Boz is going to do some mind-melding with you, which will be helpful.”
Serene nodded. “You okay with me rolling with the plan I have?”
“Sure. I know as much about your plan as you do about mine, though.”
“You’re going to use the power cube to get to where the guys are. I’m going to try to extract one of the backup power spheres from the planet so that we can rig that giant telescope into a weapon.”
“You can see the telescope?”
“Yes, but only because when we were taken they took us to the top of the All Seeing Mountain and then brought us up to the ship from there.”
“How? I thought they didn’t have beaming tech.”
“They don’t. They do have a smaller ship that they use for raids. It came down and didn’t make a lot of noise.”
“It must have cloaking on it, because we never saw it, and we went up to the top of the Mountain pretty much right after you were taken.” Though we’d toured the world first. Decided I’d kick myself about that later. “And it must dock in Trevik’s ship because I’ve been all over this one and the other one, and so has The Clarence Clone, and no smaller ships were seen or mentioned.”
“Probably, since the trap they used was cloaked. They took us up to the top of the Mountain using a powered platform. By the way, everyone had a severe déjà vu reaction when we were up there, at least all of us from Earth. But then they knocked us all out and when we woke up, we were separated.”
“Good to know. We did, too. Didn’t ask Abigail and the princesses about it, but if you have a spare moment, feel free. Now, get back to the command area. If I get over there alive and in one piece I’ll do my best to keep them too busy to shoot at you.”
Serene hugged me. “Go get our husbands, family, and friends back. I’ll go get our weapon.” She and Boz headed forward to the command area and I chose an empty room.
Power cubes worked via telepathy, just like half the things and beings in this solar system, apparently. You had to visualize where you wanted to go, set the cube up to “send” and then you touched the cube and, voila, you were there. Only I didn’t have a clear idea of where I wanted to go.
No worries. I still had the circlet on. Focused on Chuckie and realized we still had our link together. But it felt tenuous, meaning he was draining and that I needed to get there fast. I couldn’t really see where he was, though, and I didn’t want to land right on or, worse, in him. Sure, the cubes weren’t supposed to allow that, but I hadn’t used them enough to feel confident.
The song changed to Pink’s “True Love” and one of the Alpha Four Poofs hopped out of my purse and onto my shoulder. It mewled and Poofikins appeared on the power cube. The Poof did something to it and all of a sudden it was sparkling. Then Poofikins jumped onto my other shoulder.
“Thanks, I needed that.”
Took a deep breath and focused on Jeff. I could see him, feel him, and it was clear that he needed me. I could see the area around him and realized that Chuckie was helping me by looking at Jeff. Focused on my husband, tucked my battle staff under my arm, and sent out a prayer to ACE, Algar, and all the other Powers That Be.
Then, Poofs on my shoulders, I put my hand onto the now-flashing part of the power cube.
CHAPTER 87
FRANKLY, I’d been expecting nothing to happen. But the cosmos did me a solid and transferred me right to where I’d been thinking. I almost didn’t react, I was so shocked.
However, self-preservation kicked in fast. Dropped the cube into my purse and readied my battle staff at hyperspeed because, naturally, the room where Jeff, Chuckie, and, thankfully, the other guys were wasn’t devoid of Rapacians. In fact the room was rather large and there was easily a full platoon if not a battalion of Rapacians in here.
I’d been seen but I started running around the room and that meant I disappeared, at least per the Rapacians’ shouts. Kicked it up to the higher gear my total rage at seeing what they were doing to my men gave me and ran up to and on the ceiling, making sure I avoided the glowing square that indicated where I could utilize the cube’s Free Return Trip option. If I hit that, I’d go back to the ship I’d left, and that wasn’t happening until I’d saved my men.
Jeff was on his knees, our enemies’ fave position for him, and as per usual, he was stripped to the waist. They had his hands tied and had him holding them behind his head. Great view, since even in pain and close to death the man was drop-dead gorgeous. But I was here to avoid the drop-dead part.
Interestingly, the torture the Rapacians were doing was physical. The A-C fast regeneration meant that Jeff was healing quickly whenever they lashed him with something that looked like a nasty cat-o’-nine-tails.
Chuckie, meanwhile, was in a contraption that looked a lot like what they’d put plain old Steve Rogers into so that he co
uld walk out as Captain America. He also had a gigantic version of the jewel in the circlets clamped to his forehead. However, if Chuckie was going to walk out as anything, it seemed like the Rapacians were shooting for Vegetable Man. He was still all there mentally—I could tell due to our connection—but he wasn’t going to hold out for too much longer.
My music had stopped the moment we’d gotten into the room, presumably because Chuckie couldn’t take anything more barraging his mind, and/or because the Rapacians would be able to hear it somehow. Gave it even odds for either. Or both.
The other guys were shackled to the walls in shackles that looked like they really hurt if the prisoner was just standing there, let alone if they tried to move. Clearly only Lakin had the “kind and gentle” containment setup on his ship.
The room was a basic rectangle, but there was a little alcove. Went over there to discover that they did indeed have Lakin’s energy cage—they were just using it to control Christopher. The Rapacian standing there was constantly pushing blue buttons. Realized that Christopher was using his speed to try to break through, and that meant they had three of the cages around him—as he broke through one, they reactivated it.
Had no idea of who to try to rescue first. This wasn’t based on love or anything, but on reasonable chance of success. The Rapacians knew I was in the room, and while I was mad enough to hit all of them possibly before one of them got a lucky hit on me, that wasn’t guaranteed.
My music changed to “Built for Speed” by the Stray Cats. Decided not to argue.
Dropped down from the ceiling onto the Rapacian with the remote. The remote dropped out of his hand and skittered toward the energy cage. What would happen if it hit the cage I didn’t want to find out, but my imagination shared a lot of options with me, all of them horrifyingly bad.
However, I had a Rapacian to overpower first, because my landing on him hadn’t knocked him out, just down. Leaped up, brained him, hard, then leaped for the remote. Caught it just before it hit the cage.
Leaped back and ripped the circlet off of the now-unconscious Rapacian’s head, destroyed it, tossed him to the side but out of sight of anyone who wasn’t looking directly into the alcove, then took a look at the remote. Had the same number and color of buttons as the one Serene now was controlling and in the same order. Hit all the blue buttons.