by Timothy Zahn
Nicole peered up at the edge of the door. The cloth was thin enough that it didn’t block the door very much, though up close like this she could see a tiny line where the panel didn’t quite close. Hopefully, that crack would be invisible from the Shipmasters’ angle and distance.
Now came the real test. Getting a grip on the end of the strip, she pulled it carefully toward her.
Perfect. The knot eased the door open—not much, just a crack, but enough. A thin piece of something wedged in there, or maybe even just the pressure of Ghorf fingers, should let them open it the rest of the way whenever they wanted.
“It works,” Kahkitah said.
“Sure does,” Nicole said, letting the door close again and scooping a couple of handfuls of sand onto the cloth strip.
“Now we find Jeff?” Kahkitah asked as Nicole stood up, brushing the sand off her hands.
“Now we find Jeff,” she confirmed. “Might as well start at the hive. Follow me.”
* * *
The hive was laid out the same way as those in the Q4 arena: a large open door led into a round central area, with pie-piece-shaped rooms coming off the sides like spokes of a wheel. Nicole had expected to find someone on guard duty at the entrance, but there was no one in sight.
Nor did there seem to be anyone else present. Frowning, wondering if she’d figured the whole thing wrong, she started a search of the side rooms.
In the fifth one they tried, they found Jeff.
He was lying on a bed like the ones in their old hive’s medical center, his eyes closed. There was a rack of equipment boxes on either side of him, with tubes coming out of them and feeding into his arms.
Kahkitah whistled softly. “Is he—?”
“Where the hell did you come from?”
Nicole spun around. Sam was standing beside a worktable, glaring at the two of them.
Sam. Dr. Sam McNair. The doctor Bungie had held up at gunpoint in the VA hospital parking lot, and who’d then been accidentally taken along with her and Bungie when the Wisps swooped in to take Nicole. Sam, who’d never forgiven her for having had his life snatched away from him, despite the fact that not a single shred of it was Nicole’s fault.
“What do you mean?” Kahkitah asked, sounding puzzled. “Nicole came from Earth, as did you.”
“Shut up, idiot,” Sam bit out, his glare still on Nicole. “We thought you were dead. Fallen down a shaft or something.”
“Sorry to disappoint you,” Nicole said, silently cursing the slight quavering in her voice. Sam didn’t scare her—not really—but he was probably going to take her reaction that way anyway.
Judging by the sardonic twitch of his lip, that was exactly how he was taking it. Damn. “Yeah, well, you can’t have everything,” he growled. “What I meant”—he shifted his eyes briefly to Kahkitah—“was where have you been hiding? You make a deal with the Shipmasters for this?” He waved a hand around them.
“Hardly,” Nicole said. “This is the last thing I wanted for you.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Sam said.
“Leave her alone,” Jeff murmured.
Nicole jerked her head toward him as an enthusiastic whistle filled the room. “You’re alive!” Kahkitah crowed. “I was so worried when you were taken away.”
“Yeah, nothing gets past you,” Sam said sourly.
“At least Kahkitah cares,” Nicole said, studying Jeff. His eyes were still slits, like someone with a hideous hangover, but at least they were open. His breathing seemed stronger, and there was a hint of a welcoming smile on his lips. “Hey, Jeff,” she said.
“Hey, Nicole,” he said in return. His voice seemed to be a little stronger this time. “Don’t mind Sam. He’s just worried about our little upcoming confrontation. What happened to your jumpsuit?”
“What?” Nicole touched her shoulder. “Oh, this? I got shot with a paintball.”
“Who’s running around with paintball guns?”
“It was in one of the other arenas,” Nicole said. “What confrontation?”
“I think you know,” Sam said. “We’re going to have our own private little war. Thanks to you.”
“Thanks to me?”
“The Shipmasters said you’d suggested it,” Jeff said. “Which I naturally assumed was a lie.”
“They didn’t say she suggested it,” Sam countered. “They said she instigated it.”
“Maybe that’s what they told you,” Jeff said. “So what’s going on?”
Nicole hesitated. The Shipmasters had been able to eavesdrop on the Micawnwi and Cluufe hives. But those bugs had been located with the food dispensers, and there was no dispenser in this particular room.
Outside would be better. But with Jeff hooked up to all those boxes that way, outside was probably out of the question.
She would just have to chance it. “Here goes,” she said. “And you’re not going to like it.”
* * *
Jeff and Sam listened in complete silence while she ran through the whole thing. Kahkitah occasionally gave a low whistle which her translator didn’t interpret, but otherwise he remained silent, as well.
The silence continued for several seconds after she finished. Jeff broke it first. “Unbelievable,” he murmured.
“Yeah, in the original meaning of the word,” Sam rumbled. “That has to be the most ridiculous story I’ve ever heard.”
“But it’s true,” Nicole insisted.
“Who says?” Sam demanded. “The ship?”
“Why would it lie?”
“Why wouldn’t it lie?” Sam countered. “It’s a ship. Who knows how it thinks?”
“Plato believed it,” Nicole reminded him.
“And Plato’s dead, isn’t he?” Sam shot back, his voice lowering ominously. “Some say because of you.”
With an effort, Nicole forced herself to keep looking into his eyes. Bungie always said she looked away when she was lying, and she didn’t dare let Sam get that idea lodged in his head. Especially since it was true. “What else could all this be for?” she asked instead. “They’ve told you you’re going to fight for food, right? What other reason could there be?”
Sam snorted. “Give me a minute. I’ll come up with twenty of them.”
“Well, while you work on that, let’s take Nicole’s story as our working hypothesis,” Jeff said. “Because it wasn’t just Plato who believed that. All the other foremen did, too.”
“Some urban myth passed down from one to the other?” Sam scoffed. “Right. If they all thought Elvis was alive, would you believe that, too?”
Jeff shook his head tiredly and turned back to Nicole. “So I gather our new strategy is to go out there and not fight?”
“Right,” Nicole said, feeling a trickle of relief. At least Jeff believed her. “And not just us, but the other team, too.”
“Yeah, that could be a bit tricky,” Jeff murmured. “They’re not going to be easy to reason with.”
“Why not?” Nicole asked, frowning. “It’s the green group, right? Kahkitah said he saw Iosif down there. Miron’s in charge, isn’t he?”
“He was when they were just doing repair work,” Jeff said. “I assume he’s still running things, though maybe he’s turned this one over to Iosif. I always had the feeling Iosif had had some military training.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Nicole said. “I’ve talked to both of them once or twice, and they both seemed reasonable enough.”
“That was when they had plenty to eat,” Jeff warned. “Who knows what they’re like now?”
“I guess we’ll just have to go talk to them and find out.”
“I guess we will,” Jeff agreed. “Sam? Get me out of this, will you?”
“Forget it,” Sam said flatly. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“Oh, yes, I am,” Jeff said firmly. “I need to see the kind of terrain we’re working with.”
“Everyone else is already doing that.”
“That was when I thought we were going to fight,�
�� Jeff said. “Not fighting is a completely different tactical situation. Get these tubes off me, or I’ll get out of them myself.”
“Damn it, listen to me,” Sam snapped. “Look. I didn’t tell you this, but the only thing that’s still got our little war on hold is the fact you’re not well enough to fight.”
“How do you know?” Jeff asked, frowning.
“The Shipmasters told us,” Sam said. “Carp and me. I figure we can stall it another few days, maybe, but only if they don’t see you walking around out there.”
“And they will see you,” Nicole warned. “There’s an observation balcony running around the whole arena, and they’re up there now.”
“Are they, now?” Jeff said thoughtfully, pursing his lips. “Fine. They want to see a wounded warrior? Let’s show them one. Sam, can you rig up one of these racks on rollers or something?”
“You mean like an IV rolling cart?”
“Exactly,” Jeff said. “Only let’s make it bigger and more impressive. Bells and whistles. Things like that always wow the gallery.”
“You want to roll a cart through sand?” Sam countered, making one last attempt. “Because that’s all that’s out there. Sand, dirt, and rocks. You’re not going to get five feet without bogging down or knocking off a wheel.”
“Okay, then, skip the wheels.” Jeff gestured to Kahkitah. “How about it, Kahkitah? You want to play corpsman?”
Kahkitah looked at Nicole, then back at Jeff. “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand.”
“I’m asking if you want to carry my life-support gear,” Jeff said. “Maybe offer me the occasional arm for support while I hobble around out there.”
Kahkitah gave an enthusiastic whistle. “Yes. I can do that.”
“Great,” Jeff said. “Get over here, Sam.” He gave Nicole a tired grin. “Let’s get busy and not fight a war.”
nine
Nicole had hoped the other members of the group would stay away from the hive until Jeff was ready to go, giving her a little more time to figure out what she was going to say. Her days away from them while she studied the Fyrantha hadn’t seemed that long to her, but from Jeff’s and Sam’s reactions—and, earlier, from Kahkitah’s—it sounded like her vanishing act had seemed longer from their side of the street.
But as usual, luck wasn’t with her. Sam had barely finished getting Jeff’s tubes out and was starting to unfasten a couple of the boxes when the whole gang trooped in together.
It went about as well as she’d expected. Carp and Levi, the two men she’d worked most closely with, seemed genuinely happy to see that she was alive and well, though she could also tell that both weren’t exactly pleased about her unexplained disappearance and whatever extra hassle it had caused the group. Tomas and Bennett had always blamed her for the continual headache that was Bungie after Plato attached him to the group, and they seemed ready to continue with that grudge. They were polite enough on the surface, though, maybe because Jeff and Carp were watching. Duncan and Joaquim, who had always kept pretty much to themselves, greeted her civilly, then retreated back into their individual shells.
None of them seemed impressed by her explanation of what was really going on behind the scenes aboard the Fyrantha. In hindsight, she decided glumly as she studied their stony faces, she should probably have let Jeff tell them about it instead of her.
“So let’s say she’s right,” Carp said, looking at Jeff. “What then?”
“We do our damnedest to come off as complete wusses,” Jeff said.
Duncan snorted. “You think Miron’s going to go for that?”
“I think we need to persuade him,” Jeff said darkly. “Matter of fact, that’s where Nicole, Kahkitah, and I are off to right now.”
“I don’t like it,” Levi said. “What if they jump you? They’ve already got an extra man. We can’t afford to lose you.”
“You missed the recount,” Jeff said, nodding at Kahkitah. “We’ve got Kahkitah now, remember?”
“We do now,” Levi said, eyeing the Ghorf. “But if this whole thing is about whether human beings can fight, I doubt they’ll let us keep him.”
“Which will be evidence enough right there that Nicole’s story is on the money,” Jeff pointed out. “Aside from all that, if the green group jumps me it’ll just postpone the test, right? The Shipmasters already said I need to be healthy before we get started.”
“All the more reason for them to jump you, as far as I can tell,” Bennett said. “I can’t see anyone really wanting to go through with this.”
“So I just need to make sure they don’t,” Jeff said.
“Okay, but what if—?”
“Don’t bother,” Sam interrupted. “He’s already made up his mind.”
“Only because it needs to be done,” Jeff said. Carefully, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and sat up. He took a couple of slow, deep breaths, and nodded. “Nicole, get me my boots, will you? You ready, Kahkitah?”
“Yes,” Kahkitah said. He stepped to Jeff’s side and lifted the two boxes Sam had pulled from the rack. “I’m ready.”
“Let’s do it,” Jeff said. He pulled on the boots Nicole gave him and stood up. “And keep an eye on the tubes—we don’t want them pulling out along the way. The rest of you stay here and keep an eye out.”
“And don’t talk near the food dispenser,” Nicole said. “The Shipmasters can listen in there.”
“I’ve already warned them about that,” Jeff assured her. “Come on, let’s see what kind of mood Miron’s in today.”
* * *
The area around the arena hive, as Nicole had already noted, was mostly short, wide trees growing out of ordinary dirt. There was a wide path, dirt with some sort of half-seen rock underneath it, which she’d also noted, leading outward from the hive, presumably to the beach.
What she hadn’t noticed on the way in was a similar, narrower path leading off the main one and heading up the rocky slope toward the distant stream.
“What’s with the river up there?” she asked as she, Jeff, and Kahkitah walked slowly along the main path. “Is there a bridge or something you can get across?”
“Doesn’t seem to be,” Jeff said. “Joaquim and Bennett climbed up there a couple of days ago. They said the cliff edges are rocky right by the water—dangerous footing—and the river itself twists and turns a little. Lots of white water, too. They couldn’t follow it all the way down, but what they could see didn’t offer any way across.”
“Seems kind of strange to have a river and no way across it.”
“Agreed,” Jeff said. “On the other hand, it’s out of sight for a ways right between the two big bluffs at the ocean’s edge. It’s possible there’s a bridge there.”
“Though if it’s where you can’t get at it, what’s the point?”
Jeff shrugged. “Granted.”
“So how do you get from one side to the other?” Nicole continued. “Swim?”
“The waves make that pretty dangerous,” Jeff said. “But no. The ocean seems to have a full tidal cycle, and at low tide there’s a stretch of wet sand about twenty meters wide. Sixty feet. Or so I hear. I haven’t been outside that room since we got moved here. You really think they’re selling whole worlds’ worth of slaves?”
“You don’t?” Nicole countered. “Can you think of any other reason they’re making people fight each other?”
“They’re aliens,” Jeff pointed out. “Who knows how they think?”
“No,” Nicole said firmly. “This is what the Caretaker said it was. I know it. And we have to figure out how to stop it.”
“That’s what we’re doing.”
“I don’t mean just stopping it for us,” Nicole said. “Or even just for Earth. I mean we have to stop all of it. Get the Shipmasters off the Fyrantha and bring it back to … something. Anything except a warship.”
“Can’t argue with that,” Jeff said. “Just be sure you don’t bite off more than you can chew. Personally, right now I’ll
settle for saving Earth.”
“And our own lives?”
“Oh, well, that goes without saying.”
They passed the line of trees, and the mix of dirt and sand, and started weaving their way through the reeds and dunes. The sand was soft and squishy underfoot, dragging at Nicole’s boots as she walked, and the reeds’ outer surface had rows of tiny hooks that caught like sticky notes on their jumpsuits if they brushed against them.
For once Sam had been right. A wheeled cart would have been useless out here.
They pushed and slogged another fifty feet or so before the line of reeds thinned out and then stopped, leaving just the sand and the slogging. The roar of the ocean, which had been part of the background noise ever since they’d left the hive, was getting louder. But now Nicole could also hear the periodic wet slapping sounds as the waves hit the rock bluffs at the mouth of the river.
And the memories those sounds brought back weren’t happy ones.
“You go to the beach much when you were a kid?” Jeff asked.
“What?” Nicole said. “No. Once. The … well, the salt water was yucky, and the sand was always too hot on my feet.”
“I used to go all the time,” Jeff said. “Or at least as often as I could. Mostly I swam in pools, but we got into the ocean a couple of times each summer. Tried snorkeling and scuba once or twice, but usually just swimming. Don’t worry, there won’t be any salt taste here—Bennett said it’s fresh water—and without a real sun the sand shouldn’t ever heat up too much.”
“If it’s okay with you I’ll stay on the dry stuff anyway,” Nicole said.
“Actually, it’s the dry stuff that’s the hottest,” Jeff said. “Hardest to walk on, too. But that’s fine.” He shook his head. “A big flowing river feeding into an ocean with its own tides. I’d love to see the schematics for this place.”
“The what?” Nicole asked, frowning.
“Schematics,” Jeff repeated. “The plans for this area. How the rooms and wiring and ducts are laid out. See, they have to be recirculating the water somehow—”
“Yeah, okay, I got it,” Nicole interrupted, peering ahead. They were close enough to the water to see the line of sticks she’d spotted from the observation deck. Now, close up, she could see they looked like thin branches and small pieces of tree trunks. “What are those?” she asked, pointing.