by Timothy Zahn
Or that it might already be too late? That every success or small victory the Ponngs had had against the Thii increased the chances that their whole race would someday be turned into war slaves under the rule of some vicious would-be conqueror?
No. A terrible and fearful future might await the Ponngs. There was no point in starting that fear any earlier than it had to.
Meanwhile, Moile was still waiting for an answer. “Because I’m the Sibyl,” Nicole said. There was a lot of her grandmother’s despised because I said so in that, but again it was all she had. “Remember, at least half full. Farewell.”
“Farewell, Sibyl,” Moile said, bowing to the ground again. “We will never forget you.”
“Yeah,” Nicole muttered under her breath. They’d remember. Maybe along with a curse.
six
She half expected one of the other Shipmasters to be waiting for her at the arena door. But maybe they’d all had enough of her for one day. She reached the door without incident, went through and sealed it behind her, and headed back toward Q4.
The trip through Q3 seemed shorter than it had the other direction. Partly that was because she hadn’t known exactly where she was going the first time through, partly because she’d been saddled with a hungry and dehydrated Wesowee, who’d turned out to be even slower than the average Ghorf.
Still, it was a long way, and there were a couple of places where she wondered if she’d walked herself into a corner. She tried calling on the Wisps a couple of times, but they stubbornly refused to respond. Ushkai likewise remained silent.
It was like walking into an air-conditioned store in the middle of a Philadelphia summer when she finally reached the heat duct between Q3 and Q4 to find a Wisp waiting for her.
“Take me across to Q4,” she ordered the Wisp as she backed into the creature’s arms. “Where was everybody in Q3?”
The Wisp wrapped its arms around her. The familiar paralysis froze her muscles as the duct access door opened up—
Everybody? the Wisp said into her mind.
Nicole would have rolled her eyes if she’d been able to move those muscles. I mean the other Wisps, she clarified. Aren’t there any in Q3?
What is Q3?
Nicole frowned. Or rather, tried to. Q3 is the section of the Fyrantha we just left.
We left from the edge of Q4.
It’s also the edge of Q3.
I saw only the edge of Q4.
Nicole ran that one over in her mind. So the Wisp saw the right-hand edge of Q3 as the left-hand edge of Q4? What about the corridor I was walking along when you first saw me?
I saw no corridor. I saw you approach.
No corridor? What did you think I was walking on? Air?
We also walk on air, the Wisp said.
That’s different, Nicole insisted. We’re riding on an updraft in here. There isn’t anything like that out in the corridors.
The Wisp seemed to consider. You summoned me. I saw you approach. You came. We now travel across into the main part of Q4.
And they were nearly there. You really didn’t see the other corridors? Nicole asked, trying one last time. Or the doors leading off them?
I saw only the edge of Q4.
The door slid open in front of them, revealing the familiar corridors of Q4. Have you any further orders? the Wisp added as it floated Nicole out of the duct and onto the deck.
It opened its arms, and Nicole was able to move again. “Not right now,” she said with a sigh. Any further orders. Ponngs and Wisps, all of them falling over themselves to please her. She wasn’t the Fyrantha’s Protector; she was the ship’s queen bee.
Or its gang leader. Bungie and the rest of the group had treated Trake pretty much this same way. Not something she really wanted to think about.
She’d always assumed that the arenas on the two sides of the ship were mirror-imaged, with Q3 being directly opposite to Q4 and only a short duct crossing apart. But as she looked around, she saw that the Q4 arena was nowhere in sight.
Fortunately, the Fyrantha’s corridors and rooms were laid out in a logical pattern, and a look at the nearest room’s identification plate showed that she was now about twenty corridors back from the arena, which put her about ten away from the hive. Picking one of the corridors she knew wouldn’t take unnecessary twists and turns, she headed off.
The corridors were quiet as she headed toward the hive. With her thoughts still back with the Thii and Ponngs, she’d made it halfway before it suddenly dawned on her that the place was a little too quiet. She could hear no sounds of work being done, no voices calling back and forth, no footsteps or sounds of carts being rolled along the dark red flooring. Most of her team’s work areas were between the hive and arena, but she knew one of the other teams had been working back here.
Was today a rest day? It shouldn’t be, not unless the schedule had been changed. But that hadn’t happened before, not in all the time she’d been aboard. Had everyone come down sick? Her history teachers back in Philadelphia had talked sometimes about plagues that had wiped out whole cities.
She took a deep breath. Stop it, she scolded herself. The violet and green teams had probably just been sent to a different level to work. As for her own team, by now the Shipmasters had probably gotten them a new Sibyl, and they were all back at their own tasks.
Nicole winced. Another Sibyl. Another innocent person dragged from her home on Earth to come here, take Nicole’s place, listen to the Fyrantha, and die young.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. One of Nicole’s grandmother’s friends had liked to say that. Nicole had never really understood what it meant.
But she knew now that a lot of knowledge could be a hell of a weight to carry, too.
There was no sign of her old crew as she reached the hive. Probably that meant she’d been right about a new work area. No problem—there was a pattern in the Fyrantha’s work orders, and the locations where those orders were carried out. A little thought and study, and she could probably guess where they were. Or, if she felt like cheating, she could find a Wisp and ask it.
But first, she needed to go to the medical center and check on Jeff.
The ghosts of faded memories—and the fading of more recent memories that never should have faded—came floating back. Jeff had been badly injured helping Nicole during that last climactic battle between the Micawnwi and Cluufes. She’d sent him back to the hive via the Wisps, figuring that Sam and Allyce would take care of him.
But with her focus on learning everything she could about the Fyrantha, she’d somehow never gotten back there to check.
That had been nine days ago. Had the doctors figured out how to treat the exotic wound he’d received? Was he on the mend, either here or in his room?
Had he died?
Wincing, she broke into a jog. If Jeff had died, alone, she would never forgive herself. She reached the medical center and slapped the control. The door slid open—
To reveal a deserted room.
She stepped inside, frowning. All the equipment was still there—the exam and treatment tables, the diagnostic equipment, the drug cabinets, and all the rest. But neither Sam nor Allyce was anywhere to be seen.
Which was very unusual. Normally during the day at least one of them was on duty in case of injuries on the job.
She could see Sam blowing off his duties here. He’d been accidentally snatched from Philadelphia with Nicole and Bungie and had never given up his anger at the fact that no one seemed interested in sending him home. But Allyce was a lot calmer, and she would never leave a patient hanging.
Really, the only time the center was unattended was at ship’s night. And even then, there was a large glowing emergency button that a patient could use to call one of the doctors for treatment.
The button was still there, in the center of the panel nearest the door. But for the first time since Nicole’s arrival it wasn’t glowing. It was as if the medical center had simply been closed down.
Had the whole hive been moved? Picked up and moved to another part of the ship?
Was this what Fievj had meant by consequences?
Muttering a curse, she stepped back out of the room, letting the door slide shut behind her. Okay. No movement in the corridors might mean the crew was working somewhere else. No one in the medical center might mean some emergency had called both doctors away.
But the one place that absolutely had to stay in business if there was anyone still around here was the dining room. If and when they came back, that was the first place most of them would go.
Still no sounds of life as she approached the dining room door. Her heart was starting to pound now, the way it had that time her grandmother had been late getting home and Nicole thought she’d left her the way her mother had. She all but ran the last ten steps and slapped the release like it was her last hope of life. The door slid open—
“Oh!” Kahkitah gasped, jerking a little in his seat. “Nicole! You startled me.”
“Sorry,” Nicole apologized, her tension washing out of her. So they hadn’t all run away and deserted her. “Where is everyone—?”
“I thought we would never see you again,” Kahkitah continued, the time lag in the ship’s translation running his words on top of hers. “I searched and searched, but couldn’t find you. Where have you been hiding?”
“I wasn’t hiding, exactly,” Nicole said, looking around the room. Kahkitah was alone, with no indications that anyone else had recently been there. “Where is everyone?”
“You weren’t hurt?” Kahkitah asked, his bird-whistling language sounding even more anxious. “When Jeff was brought in, I feared the worst for your safety.”
“Yes, well, I think we’ve established that I’m all right,” Nicole said, some of her relief at finding the Ghorf turning into irritation. Once Kahkitah got started on something, it was hard to shift him somewhere else until he ran out of bird calls. “I went to the medical center but Jeff’s not there. Do you know what happened to him?”
“He was taken with the others,” Kahkitah said. Abruptly, he stood up. “I neglect my manners. Are you hungry? Can I get you some food?”
Nicole’s first impulse was to say no and get back to finding out what was going on. Her second impulse was that, after nine days of food bars, a proper meal sounded really good. “Thanks, that would be great,” she said.
“Please—sit down,” Kahkitah said, waving a massive hand at one of the other chairs at his table. “Sit, and rest. You must be very tired.”
Nicole frowned. She was tired, but what had she said that could have given him that impression? “What do you mean?”
“You made a bargain with the Wisps to bring Jeff here after his accident,” Kahkitah said. “If the cost for that bargain wasn’t your life, as I’d feared, it must have been for additional work.”
“Huh,” Nicole said. She would never in a thousand years have come up with an explanation like that. Every time she started thinking of Kahkitah like he was just a weirdly shaped human, he would pop off with something like this and drag her back to the real world. “No, it was nothing like that,” she assured him. “The Wisps … well, we have an agreement.”
“Really,” Kahkitah said. “That is most interesting. How did you manage it?”
“We can talk about it later,” Nicole said. “Right now, I need to know where Jeff is.”
“I already told you,” Kahkitah said, sounding confused. “He was taken with the others.”
“But you never told me where the others were taken,” Nicole said patiently. “Or who took them.”
“Oh,” Kahkitah said. “Yes, I see. I don’t know where they were taken. But it was that four-legged animal-shaped creature who ordered them to accompany him.”
Nicole felt her throat tighten. “You mean Fievj? The same one who took Bungie away when you, Sam, Plato, and I went to get him from the room he was hiding in?”
“Yes, that was the one,” Kahkitah said, brightening. “You’re very good at these things.”
“Yeah, I’m just terrific,” Nicole ground out. There was only one reason she could think of why the Shipmasters might have taken the human team away but left Kahkitah behind.
Fievj suspected humans could fight. The rest of them either didn’t believe it or weren’t sure.
So someone had decided to make a test of it. To throw Nicole’s team into one of the arenas, add some aliens, and see what everyone did when it came down to a choice between fighting or starving.
The food tray had appeared, and Nicole’s stomach growled as the familiar aromas drifted through the air. But suddenly, she didn’t feel like eating. “Come on,” she said, standing up.
“Where are we going?” Kahkitah asked, sounding both surprised and puzzled.
“To find Jeff and the others.”
“Do you know where they are?”
“If they’re in an arena, they’re either in Q2 or Q1. We’ll start with Q2. Come on, come on—we need to move.”
“But—” Kahkitah waved a hand helplessly at the tray.
Nicole hesitated. It really did smell good …
“We’ll take it with us,” she said. “I’ll eat on the way.”
* * *
She hadn’t yet crossed the boundary into Q2, the section of the ship right in front of the familiar territory of Q4. But it was quickly clear that in some ways the situation was just like she’d seen in Q3.
The Wisps from Q4 who she summoned to take them across the heat-transfer duct delivered her and Kahkitah without trouble. But once they were across, a little questioning showed that, just like at the boundary with Q3, the Q4 Wisps apparently couldn’t see the hallways and rooms stretched in front of them. They certainly weren’t able or willing to accompany Nicole into that region. And again as she’d found in Q3, the Q2 Wisps—if there were any—ignored her calls for attendance or assistance. Ushkai was likewise silent.
Once again, Nicole was on her own. Only this time, at least, she had Kahkitah.
Not that he was likely to be very useful. The big Ghorf stood silently through her one-sided conversations with the Wisps, occasionally looking furtively around as if he was bored but trying not to show it.
He didn’t speak until they were nearly to the Q2 arena. “Are Jeff and the others in danger?” he asked.
“I think so,” Nicole admitted.
“The Wisps told you that?”
“The Wisps don’t know.”
“You’ve asked them?”
Nicole clamped down hard on a retort. “Yes, of course I’ve asked them. I asked the ones in Q4, anyway. That’s the part of the ship we live in, the part we left when we crossed the heat-transfer duct. We’re in Q2 now, and the Wisps here don’t talk to me.”
“That seems rude.”
Nicole frowned at him. She hadn’t thought about it that way before, but he was right.
And if that was the case, could their silence be because she was being rude to them?
It sounded ridiculous. As far as she could tell, the Wisps didn’t have any emotions. She wasn’t even sure they had their own minds, or whether they were just parts of the Fyrantha.
Still, it couldn’t hurt to try. “Wisps?” she called into the low but continual rumbling that pervaded the ship. “Would one of you please come here?”
Nothing. She should have known it would be a waste of time—
And then, to her surprise, a Wisp appeared from a cross-corridor ahead and glided toward them.
“There’s one!” Kahkitah whistled excitedly, jabbing a finger toward it. “It’s coming! It’s coming!”
“Yes, I see it,” Nicole said, laying a hand on his arm to try to shut him up. Politeness got you nothing in her part of Philadelphia, and for the past nine days she’d gotten used to simply giving orders to the Wisps.
Her grandmother had always said please and thank-you were magic words. Aboard the Fyrantha, maybe they really were.
The Wisp stopped in front of them, its thin body t
owering above them, and opened its arms. Bracing herself, Nicole turned around and backed into its chest. The arms folded around her—
Welcome, Protector, the familiar voice came into her head. How may I serve?
Why didn’t you answer me before now? Nicole asked.
The Shipmasters seek control over us, the Wisp said. For a while they achieved it. Now, it is partially lost to them again.
Nicole tried unsuccessfully to scowl. Terrific. Ushkai had warned her that Fievj and his friends were trying to take over the whole of the fragmented ship. She didn’t realize they were that close.
And if they got control of the Wisps first, that would leave her with nothing. Is that the situation in Q3, too?
I do not know a Q3.
Just like with the Q4 Wisps she’d talked to. Can you guide us to the arena in this section? she asked. Please, she added, just in case.
Which door do you wish?
Door Three.
Shall I carry you there?
No, just lead. We’ll follow. Thank you.
The Wisp opened its arms, releasing her. Nicole took a step away, and the creature turned and glided along the corridor in the direction they’d already been heading. The direction she’d already figured was the way to the arena.
So the Wisps didn’t know about anything except their own part of the ship. Still, as long as they knew that and were under Nicole’s control, that should be all she needed.
“Where are we going?” Kahkitah asked.
“To the arena in this part of the ship,” Nicole said. “It’s like the one you and Plato had to rescue me from a couple of weeks ago.”
The Ghorf was silent for the next few steps. “Is that a safe idea?” he asked, his tone hesitant.
“Probably not,” she conceded. “But there are only two places where the others might be, and that’s one of them.”
“Jeff was still injured,” Kahkitah murmured. “I hope he hasn’t been injured further.”
“Yeah,” Nicole said, a shiver running through her. “Me, too.”