by Viehl, S. L.
“What are they doing?” Xonea asked Maggie.
“Oh, they think they’re going to be transformed now,” she said. “The morons.”
A burst of red light came out of Swap and swept through the crystal, which dissolved it. I would have thought it destroyed, until I saw one of the Odnallak run into the shadowy air where one crystal structure had stood only a few seconds ago. A delicate black haze surrounded the Odnallak, who went still and began tearing at its robes.
Horror filled me as I saw the haze begin swirling around the shifter, slowly stripping away its skin. The Odnallak screamed over and over as it tried to get away, but the haze followed it, eating away at its muscles and then its organs, until at last all that was left was a skeleton that toppled to the ground. The haze descended, swirling gently, and when it lifted again the skeleton was gone.
All around the meadow the same thing happened again and again to the remaining shifters, until all that was left was the black haze and the tight black ball that had been Swap.
The black haze swirled around the ball now, stripping the dark outer layer away from the worm but not attacking the life-form inside.
Swap had undergone some sort of metamorphosis and emerged from the cocoon as a much larger creature, easily the size of a troop transport, with a lurid yellow-green hide and a hundred spidery limbs. He had no head, only openings on either end of his body. The biggest opened, revealing acres of teeth, and the black haze rushed into that terrible mouth, filling and bloating Swap’s new body.
I glanced at Maggie. “Will it kill him now?”
“It should be so lucky.” She watched, her eyes full. “He’s just packing for the trip.”
Once all of the haze had been sucked into his mouth, he closed it and changed shape again, growing armored yellow-black scales. He then crawled across the clearing to the empty shuttles and ate them, one by one, before looking up at the hovering transport that had brought him to the planet.
The ship landed in front of him, and angry Odnallak poured out of it, firing their fluid weapons at Swap. He stabbed his limbs through their bodies and dragged them to his mouth end, into which he flung them.
I turned away as Swap began to chew. “Stop this, Maggie. I’ve seen enough.”
“Oh, come on,” she chided. “He’s going to N-jui next, and there’s nothing like seeing an adult rogur eat a few cities before it gives birth to several thousand versions of itself.” She watched Swap crawl into the transport, which lifted off a moment later. “Well, maybe when the little ones have their first meal.”
“You’ve made your point, Maggie,” Reever said quietly.
We were back on the Sunlace, standing in our quarters. Xonea had vanished, and Maggie looked terrible.
I started to ask her how she knew about Swap, but her form swayed and then suddenly burst into hundreds of Lok-Teel, which fell to the deck and began crawling around in a frantic, frightened manner.
“We promised to protect Swap,” my husband said slowly. “And as offensive and ridiculous as Maggie is, I think she was showing us the truth. That is what will happen if the raiders invade Trellus.”
“I know. I felt the same thing.” I reached down to stroke one of the little housekeepers, which clung to my hand and shivered.
“Duncan,” Xonea said over the com panel. “I just had a very long and disturbing hallucination. However, we do not detect a hazard inside your quarters. Are you clear? Is that redheaded female gone?”
“Yes,” Reever replied over the com, but the hazard claxon continued to sound. “You can shut that off. It was a false alarm.”
“Perhaps here, it was.” My ClanBrother disengaged the lock and entered our quarters. “But we have detected another biohazard on the ship. It’s in the survey lab.”
We accompanied Xonea to the survey lab, the corridor to which had been blocked off at either end with the same type of energy curtains that Nalek Kalea had installed in the containment chamber. One of the ship’s engineers had an interior view of the survey lab on monitor, and it showed a dark, cloudy substance had formed around the black crystal inside the chamber. “Something engaged the failsafe shortly after you sounded the biohazard alarm in your quarters,” Xonea said. “But the probe unit never emerged to encase the specimen container. The control circuits appear to have shorted out.”
I looked at the monitor. “What is the temperature in there?”
“Seventy-eight degrees Fahrenheit,” Xonea said. “The same as the rest of the ship.”
“The chamber won’t hold it much longer, Captain,” one of the engineers said. “The protective field is losing power. I cannot be sure, but the specimen appears to be absorbing it.”
“How long until the field is drained?” Reever asked.
“At the rate of power loss, ten minutes,” the engineer told him.
“Disengage the corridor seal,” my husband said. “I have to go in there and activate the manual override.”
“We don’t know what type of radiation or energy that crystal is emitting,” Xonea told him. “It doesn’t register at all on our equipment. Like that female who took over my brain.”
“If I don’t eject that crystal before the containment chamber fails, the energy will be released into the rest of the deck. It could cause an explosion or worse.” My husband gestured toward the curtain blocking off the corridor. “You can reactivate it as soon as I’m on the other side.”
“I’m going with you,” I said.
“No, beloved.” He looked down at me. “We can’t both risk the exposure.”
“I’ll wear an envirosuit,” I promised. “I’ll stay outside the lab doors. You can’t do this alone.”
Reever glanced at Xonea and then at me. “It’s time to tell your ClanBrother about Trellus.” He nodded at the technician, who deactivated the energy curtain.
I tried to follow him, but Xonea grabbed me from behind and held me until the engineer reactivated the seal.
“He will do what he must, Jarn,” Xonea said when I turned on him. “Now tell me what I need to know.”
As I watched the monitor screen, I told him about Trellus, Swap, and our promise to the Trellusans. I also told him about the alien raider, and the Odnallak who had posed as Cherijo’s father.
“Now I understand why she told me to destroy the ship,” Xonea said.
“She knew she would be sending us to our death,” I said dully as I watched Reever finish donning an envirosuit before he entered the lab. “But she’s right. We can’t permit them to invade Trellus, even if it means sacrificing every member of the crew to stop them.”
Reever stood inside the lab now, and moved slowly toward the control console. Once there, he used the suit com to signal us.
“All of the control circuits have been destroyed. I cannot engage the manual override.”
Xonea signaled back. “Come out of there, Duncan. We will find a way to seal off this deck.”
“There is one more thing.” He went over to one of the interior supports by the lab entry, removed a strap from his belt, and began wrapping it around the support and his waist. “Evacuate the deck now, Xonea.”
“What are you doing?” I demanded over the com. “Duncan, answer me.”
“Go with the captain, Jarn.” He turned his helmet so he could look at the monitor. “Please, Wife. Trust me.”
I didn’t trust him, but my ClanBrother took my arm again, and I went with him to the nearest lift. “Do you know what he intends to do?”
“I have a good idea.” He guided me out of the lift and straight to the nearest wall panel, from which he signaled communications. “Put up an interior view of the survey lab on this screen,” he ordered. As soon as the image of Reever appeared, he signaled my husband. “The deck is clear. Make sure your tether is secure.”
Tether? That meant—
Every thought left my head as I watched my husband raise a pulse rifle to his shoulder and fire across the room at the hull. The ship’s emergency buffer should have absorbed the blast
, but instead a small hole appeared, and then the wall itself tore open and disappeared into space.
The explosive decompression of the room dragged most of its contents out through the ragged gap. Console panels, storage units, and other equipment slammed into each other and the remains of the hull before disappearing.
Reever fired again, and I looked over at the containment chamber as the plas sides imploded and the fragments along with the dark cloud inside them were also pulled out of the ship.
Reever’s body was being tugged away from the post, but the strap he had used held. He fired a final time at the base of the specimen container, loosening and then freeing it from its platform. The cracked sides of the container bulged for a moment, and then it, too, flew out of the ship.
“Engage auxiliary buffer, deck seven,” Xonea ordered over the com, and a new curtain of energy formed over the gap in the hull, sealing it off. Reever’s body fell to the deck, but before I could blink, he was propping himself up and looking at the monitor again.
“It’s gone,” he said through chattering teeth. “Would you send my wife down here? I think I need a doctor.”
Nineteen
I signaled a medevac team and went with Xonea to level seven, where the engineers were working to override the pass code and gain entry to the survey lab.
“The code is one-six-four-one-seven,” I said, pushing past them as soon as the doors opened.
Exposure to space had covered every surface in the now-empty lab with a thin layer of ice, including Reever’s envirosuit. I ignored the burn of the cold as I tore apart the strap tethering him to the post and looked into the shield covering his face. Blood stained his mouth, but his eyes were clear and vivid blue.
“That is the last time I trust you,” I told him as the orderlies arrived and handed me my case. I scanned him. “Whenever I am on duty, I think I will lock you in our quarters.”
My husband stood with some difficulty, and pulled off his protective gloves. “I need to send a drone probe after the container. We have to collect it and fly it into a star.”
“You have frostbite, cracked ribs, and hypothermia, so the only place you need to go is medical.” I looked over at Xonea. “The captain will see to cleanup.”
My ClanBrother nodded and began issuing orders as the orderlies and I moved Reever onto the gurney and out of the lab.
In medical I treated Reever for exposure, slowly warming his body temperature with thermal packs while performing a more thorough scan of the impact fractures in his ribs. Thankfully, his chameleon cells were already hard at work repairing the bone damage, and by the time I finished my assessment, his ribs were healed.
Reever insisted on signaling Xonea to determine the status of the black crystal. When I threatened to put him in restraints, he said, “If the specimen container was compromised, it may have broken up the crystal. More than one drone probe may be required to collect it.”
“One signal,” I warned, “and then you must rest.”
The captain confirmed that the drone probe had been launched and had successfully tracked down the specimen container. That was the only good news he had for us, however.
“The probe’s readings indicate that the specimen container is still intact,” Xonea said. “But the black crystal is no longer inside the unit. It reads as empty.”
“Considering the effect the black crystal has on our equipment, we can’t assume that it is,” Reever said. “If you would, Captain, program the probe to fly into the nearest star.”
Xonea confirmed that he would, and terminated the signal.
“We must ask Shon to contact oKia,” my husband said, rising from the berth. “They may be able to intercept the mercenaries before they reach Trellus.”
“Duncan.” I barred his path. “I know you have healed, but the chameleon cells burn a great deal of energy when they repair you. You know you are exhausted.”
“So are you.” He touched my cheek. “We don’t have much time, though, and we must know where the raider fleet is.”
Resigned, I followed him out of the treatment room and over to Shon’s chamber. The oKiaf was conscious and, after listening to Reever’s account of Maggie’s warning, agreed to signal Commander Dagar and ask his tribe for help.
The oKiaf responded quickly to Shon’s signal. “The raiders returned a few hours ago, but when we attempted to engage them, they transitioned out of the system.”
“Were you able to track where they jumped to, Cousin?” Shon asked.
“We did,” the commander confirmed. “I’ll send you the coordinates.”
I glanced at the screen as soon as the position of the raider fleet appeared, and then closed my eyes. “They’re orbiting Trellus.”
The Sunlace had to make four consecutive transitions to reach Trellus, something that nearly caused me to lose consciousness. When my mind cleared and everything finally stopped spinning, Herea reported that the ship was approaching the colony. The jaunt had come with a high price.
“Too many jumps,” she said, shaking her head. “The interdimensional generators have gone offline. We will not be transitioning anywhere for several days.”
Reever and I met with Xonea in command, where he reported what we had feared.
“Two raiders have landed on the surface, and the Odnallak have taken over most of the domes.” He turned to me. “We have received a signal from one of the domes that is currently under fire. A female Terran asked if you were on board. Thankfully, it was not the red-haired one.”
“It must be Mercy.” I went to a com unit and sent a relay. A distorted image appeared on the screen and slowly coalesced into an unsmiling face. “Mercy, it’s Jarn. We’ve come to help.”
My friend looked grim. “I don’t know who these bastards are, but they won’t negotiate terms with us. We have two hundred dead, and they’re threatening to begin executing more if we don’t give them what they want.”
I felt miserable. “They’ve come for Swap.”
“Yeah, well, he’s not here. He got a signal from some trader friend of his and left the colony a few days ago. I keep telling them this, but they don’t believe me.” Mercy looked over her shoulder as pulse fire erupted over the audio. “They’ve breached my grid. Jarn, if you can spare some of your Jorenian pals, we’d—”
The signal and the image abruptly ended.
“The raiders have disabled the colony’s transceiver,” Xonea said, and his gaze shifted. “Major Valtas.”
I turned around to see Shon standing with one arm braced against entry. Crystal streaked over most of his body and had turned his black mane into a hard mass of glittering silver-white.
“You shouldn’t have left your berth,” I said, going to him.
“I won’t be able to talk much longer,” he said, his voice rough. “Or breathe. I can feel the crystal in my throat.”
That decided things. “I’m taking you back and prepping you for surgery.”
“The dialysis is no longer working. The infection has spread to all my organs. I only have an hour left at most.” He eyed Xonea. “Give me a launch. I’ll send a signal to the raiders and draw them away from the colony.” He turned to Reever. “The raiders fly in tight formation. We’ll need to rig the core for a five-kim blast radius.”
“No. I won’t allow you to do this,” I told him, furious now. “The Sunlace is a powerful ship. Xonea can attack the raiders. We’ll send rescue teams down to the surface. Shon.”
The oKiaf led me outside the room and looked down at me. “You will let me go.”
“I have no intentions of—”
Crystal claws touched my mouth, silencing me. “You will let me go because I love you. I love you, more than even Jadaira, and I will never have you. This is the way I choose to die. So that you and Reever and the Torin and the colonists may live.”
“I can’t.” I saw Reever and gave him a beseeching look. “Please, Duncan, don’t let him do this.”
My husband held out his hand, and Shon
put his paw in it. The two stared at each other in silence for a long time.
“Major,” Reever said. “I am a telepath. I have seen. You know how it must be.”
“I had hoped otherwise.” Shon’s remaining eye closed, and then opened. “Very well. I will see you in medical, Healer.” He limped off.
I stared after him. “How did you do that?”
“Major Valtas has many gifts. One of them is foresight. He knows this is not his time to die.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “I can’t explain it, Jarn, but I feel it just as you do. He is more important than we know. Whatever the cost, we must do everything necessary to keep him alive.”
Xonea joined us. “In the event anyone cares for my opinion,” he said, “I am not sending a dying man out on a rigged launch. He is too sick to pilot it.”
I glanced at him. “You feel it, too, don’t you?”
He made an uneasy gesture. “I know it is wrong. Likely that alien female did something to my brain. However, Shon’s idea still has some merit. One pilot flying a launch rigged for core overload might destroy the entire fleet.”
“You can’t deliberately send one of the crew to their death,” I argued. “The raiders have scanners. They will know Shon isn’t on the launch.”
“I never said I would use a living pilot,” Xonea chided. “We have drones for that. Duncan, can you program one of the portable simulator units to project a duplicate of Major Valtas?”
My husband nodded. “I will need some of Shon’s DNA. The simulator can duplicate him exactly from it.” He glanced at me. “Do you have any hair or tissue samples I can use?”
“I’ve taken a few blood samples for analysis,” I said. “I’ll send those down to launch bay. Are you sure this will deceive them?”
“I have used a similar ploy in the past. Once I made a group of attacking slavers believe that my ship was crewed by two hundred Hsktskt,” my husband told me. “I can manage a convincing simulation of the major.”
Xonea and Reever went to rig the launch while I returned to medical to retrieve the blood samples. Herea met me in the lab and told me that Shon had returned, but his condition was deteriorating rapidly.