Nira sensed the shift as well. She touched one of the new treelings she had carried into the command nucleus. “Kolker isn’t there. No one else can use the treeling. I don’t know what’s happening.”
“It is Rusa’h. He has returned with his faeros. Daro’h warned us. I’ve got to get to Ildira immediately!” The warliner’s stardrive engines were already building up energy. The thism resounded with tremor after tremor of chaos, destruction, and bright, bright fire. “Faster,” Jora’h cried to the warliner’s captain. Confident in his victory, Rusa’h no longer bothered to hide himself in the thism.
The ship’s sensor operators, already feeling the emergency, scrambled at the controls. The tactical officer shouted an unexpected warning. “Liege—large ships coming in! Right now, closing on us! Many of them. They belong to the EDF.”
As the warliner headed home at full speed, the Earth Defense Forces ships—a fully armed Juggernaut and four Manta cruisers—careened directly into its path.
“Why are they here? Take evasive action! I do not have time to deal with human politics. We must leave, now.”
“Shall I open fire, Liege?”
Jora’h was suddenly at a loss. The Solar Navy opening fire against the Earth Defense Forces? That made no sense. He had just entered into an alliance with King Peter.
Nira’s face was drawn in anguish. “Those ships may well be our enemies, Jora’h. Don’t count on the EDF to be reasonable—” She touched her treeling again and let out a sharp cry. “The treeling in the Prism Palace! It’s just been destroyed. I’m cut off. The tree just . . . burned.”
Jora’h stared at the Earth military ships blocking his way. “Yes. If they will not move, we have no choice but to strike at them. Prepare to fire—”
The EDF Juggernaut took the decision out of his hands. The big battleship shot without warning, dealing the warliner’s engines a crippling blow.
In the command nucleus, Solar Navy officers backed away from their sparking panels. The warliner lurched as more impacts resounded through the hull. Nira clutched her potted treeling to keep it from shattering on the deck. Jora’h stumbled into the command rail as the deck tilted beneath his feet. “Why are they firing on us?” Feeling the faeros fire through the thism, he could barely think straight. Ildira itself was in terrible trouble. “Get us out of here!”
“Our engines don’t respond, Liege.”
“Open fire! Target their Juggernaut. Do whatever it takes to break us free.” His mind continued to spin. On this mission of peace and contrition to Theroc, he had not imagined he might find himself engaged in a war.
“Our engineer kithmen are already on the main decks, Liege. They do not know if they can effect repairs in time.”
Despite the thrumming heat and pain coming from her treeling after the faeros had struck Kolker, Nira needed to dispatch a report of what was occurring here. The Mage-Imperator was being attacked. Perhaps King Peter or some of the Roamer ships, even a verdani battleship, could rush from Theroc and offer assistance.
The image of an EDF admiral appeared on their screen. “I’m Admiral Esteban Diente, and I extend an invitation to the Mage-Imperator. We’d like to have him join us.”
“An invitation? You have fired upon my flagship. That is an act of war against the Ildiran Empire.”
Diente’s face was stony. “Chairman Wenceslas wishes to discuss matters of mutual interest with you, sir. I have instructions to escort you with all due honors to Earth.”
“I refuse! I have just learned of a crisis on Ildira. I must return to the Prism Palace without delay.”
“That is not an option, sir. Since your engines are damaged, we will tow your vessel.” Heavy-duty tractor beams had already attached themselves to the warliner’s hull. Jora’h felt a jolt as the EDF ships tightened their grip.
“We’re being kidnapped,” Nira said.
“And Mijistra is in flames!” Jora’h turned to face Diente on the screen. “My need is urgent. You must let me return to Ildira. Now!”
Diente sounded so reasonable, he must have rehearsed his words many times. “You have already spoken with the leader of an outlaw government. The Chairman, Earth’s authorized representative, simply wishes equal time to confer with you.” Without letting the Mage-Imperator respond, Diente closed the channel and refused further requests for communication.
Jora’h was trapped, and his warliner could go nowhere. His beloved Palace was becoming an inferno of Rusa’h’s revenge!
With a lurch, the warliner began moving. The Hansa battle group dragged them off toward Earth, and Jora’h could do nothing about it.
129 MARGARET COLICOS
Amidst the clash of the subhives on Llaro, the escaping humans had no more effect than dust motes in a whirlwind. Insect warriors ripped apart their rivals, and the Llaro Klikiss pitted their strange weapons against equally odd destructive devices created by the invading subhive.
The escapees followed corridors, trying to circle around the loud and violent fighting zones. When they dodged two colliding Klikiss warriors, one of the spines nearly skewered Robb. Tasia managed to yank him away before the spine could do more than gash his back.
“Some would find the thought of humans being squashed by insects ironic,” DD observed.
“Not now, DD,” Margaret said.
More spiny attackers from the rival hive poured in, taking advantage of the new transportal frame, while smaller groups marched through the old trapezoidal wall inside the ancient Klikiss city. Margaret noted a definite difference in the two opposing groups. The invaders had an older body design with blue and red blazes across their carapaces. The fighters in the Llaro subhive were clearly superior, spawned after the domates had incorporated the colonists’ DNA. Evolution, improvement. Though the invaders were causing substantial damage, they were being systematically slaughtered.
Margaret knew they had to escape before the end of the battle. Whichever Klikiss survived would turn their attentions to recapturing or killing all of the humans. She found it hard to believe they actually had a chance of getting away, but she helped guide them. “I didn’t think I would ever leave the Klikiss, DD.”
“Did you wish to stay here, Margaret Colicos?”
“Definitely not—but I’m not sure I belong in the outside world either. It’s been years since I last saw Anton, and I don’t know very much about the Spiral Arm anymore.”
“I can give you news summaries.” The Friendly compy was happy to help. “However, my own information is somewhat out of date. Sirix did not grant me access to unfiltered information when I was his captive.”
Davlin urged them through the tunnels, moving from one connecting passage to another. Wincing from his injury, Robb called back over his shoulder, “The Klikiss wrestling match here is the only current event that matters.”
Margaret pushed aside any lingering reticence by remembering who she had once been. “DD, when you served us on Rheindic Co, I was an organized manager of an archaeological site, a determined leader, and a talented scientist.”
“I can replay many of our old conversations verbatim, if you like. It may help remind you. Those were some of the most satisfying times in my entire existence.”
Orli ran ahead, her face flushed. At her insistence, they paused at a small pile of discarded items thrown into a noisome alcove. DD had located the girl’s pack there in his brief explorations of the insect city, and Orli retrieved her synthesizer strips, teary-eyed. “My father gave these to me.”
With frequent guidance from Margaret and DD, Davlin led the group up through one of the darkened structures until a wide opening of daylight showed their escape route. They all put on an extra burst of speed.
Outside, hundreds of next-generation Klikiss warriors ripped apart the rival insects emerging through the giant transportal. Bugs tore into bugs, smashing each other’s carapaces, ripping segmented limbs out of sockets. Scouts and attackers flew about in makeshift aircraft, dive-bombing with resinous weapons to gum up
and then kill rival Klikiss. The bedlam was incredible.
A crowd of pale humanoid Klikiss warriors faced off against one of the rival breedex’s domates. Margaret watched the hybrid Klikiss strike down the enemy domate and pummel it into sticky shards of smashed armor.
The long drop-off beneath the window opening at which the prisoners stood was nearly twenty meters. “We don’t have enough rope,” Nikko said.
“Then we’ll have to get to the surface another way.” Davlin turned around.
Margaret anxiously assessed what was happening outside. The invading Klikiss would soon be defeated. “We don’t have much time.”
130 ADMIRAL SHEILA WILLIS
While the Admiral kept the raft-base under a communications blackout, neither her Mantas nor the Jupiter knew what was happening. Willis turned her efforts to damage control.
Lanyan’s fifteen hard-liners shouted at her uneasy troops, calling them mutineers. “We’re your fellow soldiers! Your Admiral just shot the commander of the Earth Defense Forces. You’ll be court-martialed and executed for—” The words cut off as Willis zapped the loudest complainer with the twitcher as well.
She waved the weapon. “If that’s the only way to keep the rest of you cooperative, I’ll use it again.” Sullen but infuriated, the guards shut up.
Willis raised her voice, so that the rest of her soldiers could listen as she paced in front of the captives. “I prefer to think that any EDF soldier has a brain as well as a heart, and General Lanyan hasn’t used either. He’s broken so many laws and protocols that I don’t have enough time left before retirement to list them all. Look at you, bragging about your massacre on Usk. And now you’re threatening to do the same to Rhejak! Your Juggernaut shot down an innocent Roamer trader carrying a load of seafood, for heaven’s sake! If anybody here thinks that was a good idea, then you’re welcome to lodge a formal protest. In fact, you can sit in the brig and write me an essay on civic responsibility.”
She waited for a long moment, but no one accepted her offer. Her own crew began cheering. Hakim Allahu and his fellow Rhejak leaders clapped one another on the back.
“I don’t see any fat lady around, but it’s time for her to start singing.” Willis chose twenty-five of her own soldiers she was sure she could count on. “Let’s take that troop transport before the General’s men aboard my Jupiter get too suspicious. We already know they’ve got itchy trigger fingers.”
Willis herded her special squad aboard the General’s ship, knowing she didn’t have enough firepower for a stand-up fight against an EDF Juggernaut. She had to take control before it could come to that.
Aboard the lead Manta’s bridge, Lieutenant Commander Brindle was surprised to see her. “Admiral! We’ve been trying to reach you. After the General began his speech to the troops, we lost all contact with the surface.”
“Yes, quite a communications breakdown.” She had insisted on running the troop transport in radio silence, transmitting no more than her classified ID beacon to get aboard the Manta.
Brindle was full of questions. “But where is the General? This is not at all according to procedure.”
“I’ll explain everything in a minute.” She strode to the command chair, and Brindle quickly relinquished it. “Let me send a transmission to the Jupiter’s bridge.”
“I will contact their acting captain immediate—”
“No need.” Watching the Jupiter cruise behind them like a great armored whale in space, she keyed in the coded sequence directly from her chair. A Christmas tree of lights twinkled, marking deck after deck. “Send this. Don’t bother waiting for an acknowledgment.”
“What is it, Admiral? Where is General Lanyan? Has something happened? The Jupiter’s acting captain has been sending constant inquiries—”
She regarded him with a cool glare. “Do I look like I’m participating in a celebrity interview, Mr. Brindle?”
The comm officer quickly said, “Sending now, Admiral.”
The coded burst went out. Willis had never actually forgiven General Lanyan for commandeering her Jupiter. Now her lips curled in a satisfied smile as she watched the lights wink out, deck after deck. The Jupiter’s weapons ports dimmed and the engines died, leaving the Juggernaut dead in space.
“Admiral, something just happened to the Jupiter!”
Brindle took a step closer to the viewscreen. “Are they under attack?”
“Don’t worry. That ship won’t cause us any more problems.” Willis shook her head in wonderment. “I can’t believe the General thought I’d forget my own guillotine code.” More likely, he hadn’t dreamed she would use it.
Brindle rounded on her, his face full of anger. “Admiral, this is uncalled for!”
“Expressly according to procedure, I have relieved General Lanyan of his command, citing numerous breaches of military protocol.”
“Breaches of protocol?”
“For starters, firing upon a Roamer noncombatant, murdering innocent civilians, maliciously destroying private property, and attempting a military coup of a lawful government.” Her smile was grim. “I can come up with more, if you’d like.”
Before Brindle could say anything, several of the bridge crew cheered. “It’s about damn time, Admiral!” She had not underestimated the effect the worsening news had had on her soldiers.
But she kept watching her second in command, marking him as a potential trouble spot. “Do you have a problem with that, Mr. Brindle?”
His jaw worked, and finally he said, “Yes, Admiral—yes, I do. You have usurped the authority of your superior officer. You are required to follow the General’s orders, whether or not you agree with them.”
“Study your history, Lieutenant Commander, and see how often ‘I was only following orders’ holds up as a defense when crimes against humanity are committed. Have you reviewed the Usk images the General is so proud of? He meant to do the same here, without a trial and without evidence! I’d never be able to sleep at night if I let him get away with that.”
She didn’t have the time for a protracted debate, though. Since her exec was still wrestling with his doubts, she reached a quick decision. “I don’t want anyone on my bridge who’s having second thoughts about what I intend to do. Confine yourself to quarters and think about it, Mr. Brindle. Run this decision through your moral compass. If things go badly, I personally guarantee that you will not be implicated in anything that happens next.”
Without a word or even a salute, Brindle left the bridge. Willis sat rigid in her command chair and nodded to herself. “General Lanyan said the Chairman assigned him only a skeleton crew because he wanted to show off his big guns. I need to round up a full-blown boarding party to go mop up on the Jupiter.”
She got up from her chair and paced around the bridge. “I want to talk to each of my Manta captains. Now. I don’t know how many will need extra persuasion, but I’d like to do this smoothly and cleanly. These ten cruisers are carrying enough weapons that we sure don’t want them getting mad at us.” She got an idea. “Oh, and cue up that message we received from King Peter—the one calling for sanctions against the Hansa. Replay it for everyone. After the Usk massacre, we’ve got a whole new perspective on what he’s saying.”
She tapped her fingers on the armrest. Since they had all sworn their allegiance to King Peter in the first place, she assumed she’d be able to sweet-talk most of them. Even Lanyan’s hard-liners aboard the powerless Jupiter might be “reasonable,” if she had enough time to work on them.
131 DAVLIN LOTZE
Klikiss battles continued to rage into the afternoon, and Davlin doubted their small group could remain successfully hidden until darkness, when the cover of night would help them get away. He broke the problem into its component challenges and solved one piece at a time.
Though shaking and exhausted, all six of them were ready to go. Davlin could see that none of them had any intention of surrendering, even Margaret Colicos. The wound on Robb Brindle’s back obviously pained
him but did not seem to be life-threatening.
“This place is a maze,” said Nikko. “And I get lost in the best of times. How are we supposed to find the old buildings, then find a way out and sneak past all those fighting Klikiss?”
“I could project a likely path,” DD said. “Once we reenter the original ruins, I can find a more appropriate exit for us.”
Orli put a reassuring arm around the little compy, but didn’t say anything.
DD guided them back to the old city. However, by the time they reached the weathered passageways, complete with bare-bones EDF conduits, electrical wiring, and intercom system, Davlin thought he detected a change in the Klikiss hive. Workers scuttled past, pausing only briefly to study the humans before shouldering them aside. Something was changing.
Listening to the clicking sounds, Margaret said, “We have to get out of here. Soon. The breedex is about to finish destroying the other subhive.”
“Time to haul ass, then,” Robb said.
Davlin reached a decision. “I know how to stall them—but I estimate there’s only about a ten percent chance this will work.”
“Ten percent?” Nikko seemed disappointed in him.
“Better than zero percent,” Tasia pointed out. She scratched her head and found a hard lump of leftover web material, which she discarded. “What do we do?”
“You have to get outside, somehow. Make your way to the Osquivel and rescue the rest of the people at the bluffs. Tamblyn, Brindle, steal a Klikiss ground craft if you have to—you’re smart enough to figure out the controls.” Davlin felt confident in turning over the responsibility to these two. They were certainly qualified to become “specialists in obscure details,” like himself.
“Sounds like you don’t plan on meeting up with us again,” Robb said.
Margaret paused. “I have no intention of abandoning you, Davlin, after all you’ve done.”
“I’ll figure something out. I alter my plans as necessary. Don’t wait for me. If everything goes smoothly, I’ll be right on your heels.”
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