“Don’t hold your breath hoping I’ll ask for it,” I said.
The Central Processing Station maintained orbit just beyond the perimeter of the asteroid belt. Six compact, efficient-looking wheels revolved around the gigantic median core. What puzzled me was the long metallic streamers attached at regular intervals around the wheels’ outer hull plates. What was the purpose of the “fringe”?
“The Aksellans use arutanium tethers to travel from the processing station to the outer fringe of the asteroids,” Reever said, making me jump in my harness.
Reading my mind again, the nosy bastard. “Can they be used as garrotes?”
“The Aksellans possess five different silk-producing glands, originally used to convert excretory by-products into snarewebs to capture prey. Over the centuries of species’ development, much of which was spent below the surface of their homeworld, the arachnids evolved into natural miners. They are quite capable of dealing with the problems posed by asteroid mining, and have redefined tether technology.”
Even the lizards were starting to look bored. “Yeah, but can you hang someone with it?”
“Each miner ingests arutanium, which is excreted from a particular gland, along with the pseudo-silk material and strengthens the lengths of snarewebbing. The natural tethers are then attached to the exterior hull of the processing station, and the miners use them as anchor cables when traveling from the station to the outer fringe of the asteroid belt.”
“So they chew up some mineral, spit it out, and use it like ropes to swing out to the rocks,” I said, and yawned.
Reever leaned closer. “It is slightly more complicated than that.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” I tried not to look at the looming image of the station through the viewport. “I want to go in alone.”
That made him straighten up. “No.”
“You want me to negotiate a surrender? The minute they see the Hsktskts, they won’t hear a word I say.”
“I cannot permit it.”
I closed my eyes. “You’d better permit it, or I don’t move an inch from this seat.”
He didn’t say anything for a long time. Then I heard, “Very well. I will go with you.”
FlatHead, I noticed, was following our conversation closely. He rose out of his harness and crossed the deck to stand over both of us. “OverMaster, I will take my squad in before you and the Designate enter the facility.”
“So you can kill anything that moves?” I snorted. “That should get us tons of free fuel.”
OverCenturon GothVar didn’t like my comment. “When you are on my tier, Terran, I will teach you silence.”
I glanced at Reever. “What’s a tier?”
“A section of slave chambers on Catopsa,” he said. “The OverCenturon supervises the female humanoid tier.”
The lizard leaned in and blasted me with his bad breath. “My slaves swiftly learn their place.”
The stench of decay was making me sick. “Where’s that? As far away from your mouth as possible?” I ducked just in time to avoid the blow he aimed at my face. A dent appeared in the interior panel above my head. “Temper, temper.”
Reever caught the Hsktskt’s limb before he could hit me again and did something that made the guard’s tongue shoot out then curl down over his lower jaw. I’d guess that meant it hurt.
“She belongs to me,” Reever said. “And she is mine to correct.”
“He’s so masterful when he’s feeling stingy, isn’t he?” I said to FlatHead.
Reever released GothVar, then gave me a will-you-shut-up glare before continuing. “You will not attack the miners. No weapons are to be fired without my express permission.”
“TssVar will hear of this,” the Hsktskt said, then backed away.
“Uh-oh, he’s going to tell on you.” I smirked at my keeper. “You’re going to get in trouble.”
Reever hauled me to my feet, then addressed the troops. “Dr. Torin and I will make the first contact with the miners. The rest of you will remain inside the access corridor until you are signaled.”
The troops didn’t rally to his orders. In fact, the troops appeared fairly put out by them.
The League shuttle was evidently equipped with docking overrides, as the pilot had no problem accessing the shuttle clamps. It took a minute for one of the Hsktskt to bypass the access codes, the Reever and I walked down the short passage into the main air lock.
When the interior door panel slid to one side, we faced a long tunnel of ash-colored stone. A damp, acrid odor drifted over us, and made me wrinkle my nose.
“They need to air this place out.” I walked ahead of Reever, and peered at the nearest curving wall. “What is this stuff? It isn’t rock.”
The walls seemed to be made out of mesh or insulation material, the kind that mimicked stone. Some form of homeworld-effect decor?
“Cherijo.” Reever jerked me backward as a perfectly round grey hatch popped out of the floor just in front of me.
Something black and green emerged from a vertical shaft and immediately bounced up to hang from the ceiling. An Aksellan, judging by the close resemblance to my old friend Dr. Dlon. It had no weapon, but two impressive fangs slid out from a fold in its front appendages. Dark drops oozed from the hollow-pointed tips, and sizzled as they made holes wherever they fell.
“Think they’re the welcoming committee?” I said to Reever.
More concealed hatches burst open, and soon we were surrounded by twenty very large black-and-green spiders. None of them carried weapons, but all had fangs bared, and spinnerets erect and pointed at us. They knew we weren’t there to say, “Hi, can we take the tour?”
“Ztay where you are!”
With that acidic poison dripping around me? I wasn’t making a break for it.
Like my former colleague, the miners wore modified tunics over their exoskeletons. Each had a hard, shiny carapace marked with bright green pigmentation patterns. Tiny clusters of eyes glittered above their U-shaped mandibles. Sensory hairs on the inside of their appendages quivered, responding to the slightest air movements.
That was when I figured out the tunnel wasn’t a tunnel, but a tightly woven web. And, like the proverbial flies, we had just walked into it.
“Leave thiz ztation,” the largest Aksellan said. He had the greatest amount of green mottling on his cephalothorax. A sign of age, I guessed. Or an indication he was the deadliest. Dr. Dloh had often complained about the daily chore of draining the poison sacs in his forelimbs before treating patients.
“I’m sorry, we can’t do that,” I said as I took a step forward and showed him my empty hands. “The ship outside your station has been commandeered by the Hsktskt Faction. Please understand, we won’t harm you. Now we can do this the easy way, or—”
One of the other Aksellans spat a metallic stream of fluid at me. Reever jerked me to one side, and the snareweb fluid fell, forming a pool of hard, gleaming silver.
“—the hard way,” I said, staring at the puddle. My gaze went to the leader, who was buzzing something in his native language to the spider who’d tried to snare me. “Please listen. If you don’t surrender, the Hsktskt will attack.”
The leader shuffled forward and peered at my tunic. Pedipalps behind his front appendages extended to brush over my face. I didn’t move. Dr. Dloh’s people smelled with their skin and identified everything by touch, so it was a perfectly natural thing for him to do.
“You are a phyzician?”
I exchanged a glance with Reever. “Yes.”
The leader’s lustrous eye clusters rotated, something Dr. Dloh had done when he’d pondered something. “The Hzktzkt want fuel ore, do they not?” I nodded. “Az I zuzpected. This ztation haz no ztrategic value, nor do my people to zlaverz.”
I never got to ask why, because at that moment the Hsktskt centurons stormed through the access corridor panel, their weapons armed and humming. The spiders seized me and Reever, and suddenly I hung upside-down, dangling several feet in the air.
>
“Surrender,” GothVar said.
“Dizengage your weaponz, and no one will be harmed,” the leader said.
GothVar only swung one of his limbs up, then down. Pulse fire erupted all around us. I heard the shrieks of the medevac team, still back in the corridor.
The spiders moved faster that anything I’d ever seen. Before I could get my bearings, they had dodged the blasts, climbed down the air lock walls, dropped back into the hatches and sealed them with bursts of silk. We slid down the narrow dark passage that surfaced into another tunnel, and from there went through a more recognizable station access door panel. The Hsktskt couldn’t follow us, they were simply too large to fit into the hatched passages.
“Cloze off thiz zection,” the leader ordered one of the miners, then addressed me again. “You are Cherijo Torin?” Surprised, I nodded, and three of his appendages lifted. The spider holding me gently set me back on my feet. “I am Clyvoz, the fazility manager. Welcome to Akzel Drift Nine Mining Ztation.”
“Nice to meet you.” I made an appropriate waving gesture Dloh had taught me back on K-2. “How did you know my name?”
“The Jorenianz zent a wide-band zignal and advized all zurrounding zyztemz of your plight.” Clyvos indicated a nearby com console. “We will do what we can to help you, of courze.”
“I think we’d better signal the Perpetua and see if I can get the Hsktskt to back off. If I can’t, do you have an evacuation plan?”
“Yez. What about him?” Clyvos swung a limb toward Reever, who was still being held upside-down.
“Any of you hungry?” I looked around, and the other spiders eyed Reever with distinct greed. “Though I can’t guarantee he’ll taste very good.”
“Our digeztive juicez will render anything palatable,” Clyvos said.
“You forget about Alunthri, Cherijo,” Reever said, calm and unconcerned. As usual.
Damn him, I had. “You’d better not eat him yet. But if you have a detainment section, Clyvos, I’d advise stowing him in it.”
Clyvos buzzed something at the spider carrying Reever, who swiftly scurried off. He and the other miners took me down another webbed, curving corridor, then through a larger passage to the center hub area of the station.
“Zeal the inner air lock panelz, and charge them,” Clyvos ordered as we entered the main control room. I watched a large display as a series of protective panels slammed into place and bioelectrically charged.
“All the Hsktskt really want is fuel to replace their contaminated stores,” I said as a group gathered around us.
The manager taped the monitor. “The reinforced doorz will keep the Hzktzkt buzy, long enough for me to evacuate my people to the tetherz. Once we reached the azteroid field, we can hide ourzelvez among the driftz. The raiderz’ zhip cannot enter the field, and will not wazte time zending launchez to look for uz.” One of his limbs touched my arm. “You can come too, Doctor.”
I thought of the Chakacat, and how smart Reever had been to kidnap my friend as insurance. “I can’t, but thank you. Let me run interference with the Hsktskt, and help you get your people to safety. I’ll need you to make this look good.”
“I underztand.” Clyvos wrapped two limbs around me and carried me over to a signal array. One of the other miners sent a direct relay to the Perpetua. “Thiz iz Clyvoz, Ztation Facility Manager. I have captured two of your raiderz and immobilized the otherz. Ceaze fire, withdraw your troopz, and I will releaze my hoztagez.”
TssVar’s furious image briefly filled the display. “Hsktskt do not negotiate.”
Displacer fire immediately bombarded Drift Nine’s outer hull. Clyvos didn’t move, but I felt sweat trickling down the sides of my face. “Hzktzkt. You may take whatever fuel you require. All we azk iz we be left in peace once you have it.”
The Perpetua didn’t respond to Clyvos’s relay. More energy blasts rocked the station.
“I don’t think ‘peace’ translated,” I said to Clyvos. “You’d better get your people out of here now.”
“With the zhip firing on the Ztation?” Clyvos’s appendages fell away from me. “Impozzible. The tetherz are in plain view.”
I thought for a moment. Reever had mentioned something to TssVar about avoiding the main power core. “You have a central fuel system powering the entire station, right?” Clyvos pulled up a design grid for the facility and showed me their main power source.
It was fusion. Perfect.
I explained my idea. “If I can close down and seal the central exchangers and bypass the main coolant array here”—with my finger I traced the ventilation system back to the core—“the discharge will funnel back in around the main housing here, correct?”
“Yez, but the houzing will not withztand those temperaturez for more than fifteen minutez at the mozt.”
“That should do the trick,” I said. “Gives us time to evacuate the station. Your people should be safe in the drift tunnels. Do you have the equipment there to signal for assistance?”
The facility manager, who hadn’t realized I was serious, drew back in alarm. “Yez, but if you do thiz, it will deztroy the Hzktzkt raiderz and the ztation.”
I smiled. “Not necessarily.”
One of the miners escorted me to the holding area where they’d dumped Reever. Along the way, I saw hordes of Aksellans—these without the vivid markings—busily hauling huge green nodules on their backs. They came down a separate corridor and gathered on a loading dock, where they were placing the nodules into oversize field packs. Curiosity made me comment on the difference in coloring.
“Thoze are our femalez,” my escort said. When I would have walked over to say hello, he grabbed me. “Don’t get too cloze to them.” One of the drab-colored spiders saw me and made a low buzz that made me forget all about being congenial
“Don’t they like females of other species?” I asked as I stepped back behind him.
“When they are protecting our young, they tend to regard anything that movez as a meal.” He was keeping his eyes on them, too. “Even a mate.”
“What are those green things? Food?”
“Egg zacs,” he said. “We will not leave our hatchlingz for the Hzktzkt to devour.”
“Good idea.” I stopped when the spider halted at a small access panel and keyed open the hatch. Just inside the tiny space, Reever was hanging upside-down, wrapped in a metallic cocoon from his neck to his knees. Small, greyish baby Aksellans were crawling all over him.
Alarmed, I grabbed my escort by the nearest appendage. “They aren’t trying to eat him, are they?”
“They can’t, they’re too young,” the arachnid told me. “Our species doesn’t develop mouth parts until after its first molting.”
So he was safe, and why was I worried about it in the first place? “Hi, Reever. Having fun in there?”
“Cherijo.” He didn’t look amused, not with a fist-sized spider using his chin as a chair. “Tell them to release me.”
I couldn’t help myself. I laughed. “Say pretty, pretty please.”
He shook off the baby Aksellan, and another one promptly took its place Then he sighed. “Have them release me before you get us all killed.”
I might need him as a hostage, if Plan A didn’t work. “Better take him down,” I told the miner, giving him a wink Reever couldn’t see when I added, “you can start ingesting him as soon as I’m done.”
He picked up on my joke at once. “I hope it will be zoon. I’m ztarving.” With quick, efficient clacks of his mandibles, the big spider chased off the baby Aksellans, cut Reever down, and sheared off the rest of the snarewebbing.
Reever crawled out of the confining space and straightened with visible relief before giving me a cold eye. “You intend to feed me to them?”
“Why not? You made me a slave.” I used my most reasonable tone. “Besides, TssVar is trying to blow up the station”—displacer blasts buffeted the hull as I said that—“and you know how competent he is at that sort of thing.”
“Get me to an open console and I can stop this,” Reever said.
“No, I don’t think I’m going to do that.” When he stepped forward, I pulled out the pulse weapon from the body-holster Clyvos had given me and pointed it at his chest. “Walk that way if you would, please.”
“Joey, I can—”
“You’d enjoy having a two-foot hole in your sternum?” I asked politely, while my companion scuttled forward with a hungry sound. “You can even have your choice. Blasted, or chewed.”
That shut him up. The Aksellan nudged him in the right direction, while I holstered the weapon and followed at a discreet distance. We walked down three levels until we reached the central processing unit where Clyvos had told me I could access the main fusion chamber controls.
“You are zertain you underztand the prozedure?” the facility manager asked me.
“Not a problem.” I keyed the panel to open, then noticed the big spider’s nervous shuffling. “Stop worrying already. Worst case scenario, I end up toasting me, Reever, and the Hsktskt.” I glanced at my ex-husband. “No great loss.”
Clyvoz rolled his eye clusters in apparent resignation. “Luck to you, Doctor.” Then he scurried off down the corridor.
“Right.” I went inside, pointed to a spot for Reever to stand, then manned the chamber control console. It was crowded with enablers fashioned for a eight-limbed being, so I had to do some fancy hand moves.
I shut down the exchangers first, which sounded an immediate alarm.
“What are you doing?” Reever asked.
“Saving the miners.” I disabled the discharge feed through the coolant array. A second alarm sounded and critical temperatures began to rise. “Among other things.”
“You’re tampering with equipment you’ve never used.”
“Not for the first time, either.” I channeled the discharge back into the core, then altered the panel access codes.
Reever came up behind me. “You will destroy this facility.” His hands were still bound by Aksellan webbing, but I kept an eye on him anyway.
“I hope not, but you never know.” I signaled the Perpetua. “Aksellan station to OverLord TssVar. Please respond.”
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