The Spider and the Fly

by C.E. Stalbaum

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Welcome home, Agent Vale,” the Widow said as the shuttle’s landing ramp extended. “We feared you might be lost to us forever.”

  “So did I,” Jenavian murmured, her eyes flicking about the hangar. She’d spent the vast majority of her life here in this compound, but for some reason right now everything felt oddly foreign.

  The Widow turned to the Kali walking down the ramp. “And I see your assistant survived as well.”

  “Yes, he’s the reason we escaped. I know he’s not supposed to be here, but under the circumstances I figured—”

  “He has proven his loyalty and is welcome among us,” the Widow soothed. “There is no need for concern.”

  “Thank you,” Thexyl said with a bob of his head.

  Jenavian paused in surprise. She’d expected to have to fight to explain her partner’s presence, and she’d even wondered if her mistress might order him to take the shuttle back up into orbit and await further instructions. Convincing the Widow to accept Thexyl as a handler in the first place hadn’t been easy, after all, and she’d always been adamant about keeping non-human personnel away from the Nidus. But if she’d finally decided to change her mind, Jenavian saw no reason to argue.

  A few seconds later the hangar doorway behind them hissed open, and a middle-aged Tarreen man stepped inside. His haughty bearing and casually derisive glare marked him as a member of the ruling Asraad caste just as clearly as his thick purple scales and his ostentatious robe of office. Curiously, Jenavian couldn’t sense his presence, nor that of the two red-scaled Baalir caste guards behind him…

  “Allow me to introduce the Minister of Convectorate Intelligence, Tsarl Drathir,” the Widow said. “His Excellency has been assisting us in our attempts to locate you and the traitor.”

  Jenavian bowed her head and tried in vain to conceal her shock. As far as she knew there hadn’t been a Tarreen on the Nidus in years, and it had been almost a decade since Kirask, the previous Intelligence Miniser, had paid them a brief visit. Ostensibly, the Spider Program was under the auspices of the Intelligence Ministry, but she’d never even spoken to one of the minister’s aides before, let alone the man himself. The members of the Minister’s Conclave were nearly as elusive as the Hierarchs that lorded over them.

  “Your Excellency,” she said. “I am honored by your—”

  “Where is he?” Drathir demanded. “Where is Coveri?”

  Jenavian gestured to the repulsor cart behind her and telekinetically flicked it on. The metal slab lifted up into the air and then floated down the landing ramp, and a pair of Drones scurried out from the side of the bay to take it.

  “He’s injured and requires medical attention,” she told them, “but you should be able to interrogate him afterwards.”

  Drathir’s glowing yellow eyes flickered in delight. “Excellent work, Agent Vale. You may have just averted the greatest intelligence disaster in Convectorate history.”

  Jenavian nodded mechanically as she tried in vain to touch his mind again. Had the Tarreen invented some way to shield their thoughts? If so, it would go a long way towards explaining his willingness to be here. She’d always assumed that part of the reason the Tarreen left this place alone was simply because they didn’t want the Widow or any of the Spiders picking up on their juicy secrets. She was a trained telepath and sometimes even she still felt incredibly exposed. Just standing on the Nidus was the psionic equivalent of opening an unsecured network connection in the center of Eladrell; every stray emotion and thought immediately became public knowledge if she didn’t shield them. In the past, that had never been an issue for her. Spiders rarely wasted their time with doubt, after all.

  But today…

  “I don’t know how much he knows about the Mire’s general operations,” Jenavian said, forcing herself to swallow, “but I’m sure he has plenty of valuable information regardless.”

  “I should hope so,” Drathir replied. “Did he take you to their secret base? Do you know where it is?”

  “Yes, but it won’t be as simple as dispatching a fleet to eradicate it. The situation is…complicated.”

  The Tarreen’s tail smacked impatiently against the deck plating. “Explain.”

  “They’re not hiding in a conventional base—they’re surrounded by an entire city of fugitives and their families.” Jenavian paused, taking in a deep breath and glancing back to Thexyl. “And that city is inside astral space.”

  “What?” the minister stammered. “How is that possible?”

  “The short version is that one member of the Keledonian Royal family escaped the planet’s destruction, and her son founded the base on an asteroid about thirty years ago. They possess a number of astral drives and an advanced shielding grid that protects them from the Koro Effect. They’ve been living there ever since, along with almost fifty-thousand alien refugees.”

  The Tarreen’s tail continued to thrash as his eyes bored into her, and Jenavian could only imagine the thousands of questions he wanted to ask her. But befitting a man of his office and stature, Drathir recovered quickly and jumped right to the point instead.

  “What of the cure to the Pandrophage?” he asked. “Did you find it on the Damadus before the Dowd destroyed it?”

  “No. We recovered a handful of Sarafan data crystals, but there wasn’t any research concerning the cure stored on them. In fact, it didn’t appear that the crew ever started looking.”

  “You are certain of this?”

  “I never linked with them myself, but Coveri did. He seemed convinced…and thoroughly disappointed.”

  Drathir’s tail froze in place and his posture relaxed. “Excellent. The damage the Mire could unleash with a legitimate cure would be unthinkable.”

  “Yes, Your Excellency, though they are still protecting a handful of renegade Flies. They’re the ones maintaining the city’s psionic power grid.”

  “Interesting,” he mused. “How well is this asteroid defended?”

  “Lightly,” Jenavian told him. “They lack sufficient power reserves to maintain any serious defenses. A single frigate and a few transports full of commandos could easily pacify the city’s guardians and track down the actual criminals. Most of the population is innocent.”

  The Tarreen snorted loudly enough that a wisp of flame curled up from his nostrils. “That I doubt.”

  “The bulk of the city’s denizens are descendants of the original fugitives,” Thexyl explained. “Their only crime was being born to the wrong parents.”

  “They’ve associated with the enemy and concealed their presence from us. That is enough.” Drathir turned to the Widow. “I will contact the Minister of Defense and order her to begin preparations for an assault. The Hierarchy will have to commission the construction of enough astral drives to—”

  “You said you salvaged the data crystals from the Damadus,” the Widow cut in. “Where are they?”

  Jenavian stumbled briefly before reaching down to the storage case on her belt and pulling out the violet crystal. “The others are back on the asteroid, but we were never able to link with this one. I’m not sure what’s…”

  She trailed off as the crystal leapt from her grip and landed in the Widow’s outstretched palm. The other woman’s eyes lit up as she gazed down upon it, and a wide, satisfied smile pulled across her lips. “At last…”

  “Mistress?” Jenavian asked.

  The Widow stared silently down at the crystal, her features glossing over as if in a trance. Jenavian paused and waited, but Drathir was not as patient.

  “Is something wrong?” the minister prompted.

  “No,” the Widow rasped, her head bouncing back up as if belatedly remembering she wasn’t alone. “I must contact the Hierarchy and inform them that their prize has been found.”

  Drathir glanced once to the crystal before scowling again at the woman holding it. “I’m sure they will wish to give Vale a full debriefing. She has many other questions to ans
wer.”

  The Widow waved a hand dismissively. “Words are wasted here, Your Excellency. Agent Vale will link with the Nidus network, at which point I will have access to all her relevant memories. From there we can formulate a strategy.”

  He growled menacingly. “And what of Coveri?”

  “He will be interrogated once his condition is stabilized. Don’t worry, Minister—soon we will have all the answers we seek.”

  The Widow turned on a heel and strode across the hangar, but just before she reached the doorway she stopped and glanced back over her shoulder. “I cannot tell you how proud I am of you, Agent Vale. You have exceeded all of my expectations.”

  “Thank you, Mistress,” Jenavian said, trying not to sound as confused as she felt.

  The Widow offered her another quick smile before leaving the room. The Drones followed on their mistress’s heels, Markus’s cart floating along behind them.

  “You’re absolutely certain you don’t know what’s on that crystal?” Drathir asked.

  “As I said, I was never able to link with it,” Jenavian told him, frowning. “Forgive me, Your Excellency, but the Hierarchy didn’t tell you what was on it? I had assumed that was the reason you were here.”

  “I am here precisely because I have not been informed of many aspects of this program,” he growled. “Your mistress operates without constraint or oversight, and that is about to change.”

  “I see,” Jenavian replied softly. It had always stricken her as a bit odd how hands-off the Intelligence Ministry had been with the Spider Program, especially considering it was run by a “mere” human. Minister Kirask had only ever visited that one time a decade ago, just months after he’d first taken office. Evidently this must have been Drathir’s own preliminary inspection.

  “If the cure wasn’t stored on the other data crystals, it must be inside this one,” the Tarreen said after a moment.

  “As Agent Vale mentioned earlier, it didn’t appear that the Damadus crew had made any progress with their research,” Thexyl put in as he stepped up behind her right shoulder. “When we boarded the ship, the crew’s bodies were still largely intact. We suspect they turned on each other, possibly due to the Koro Effect if their shielding proved ineffective.”

  Drathir turned to face the Kali as if noticing him for the first time. “Were you able to identify any of the corpses?”

  “We didn’t have much time before the Dowd arrived,” Jenavian said, “but Coveri believed that one of the bodies on the bridge belonged to Krucius Foln, the Damadus Project leader.”

  “Foln…” Drathir whispered, his eyes flickering in thought.

  “Yes. He was actually the one holding onto that last crystal, which led us to suspect it was likely a personal log of some kind. If so, it may give us some clues about the fate of the crew…though if that’s all that’s on it, I’m not sure why it was so difficult to access.”

  “Or why the Hierarchy would be so concerned about recovering it,” Thexyl added. “Perhaps they are simply being thorough in case it really does contain research data on the Pandrophage.”

  “Perhaps,” Drathir murmured, his eyes latching onto Jenavian. “You are free to link with your network, but I may wish to speak with you afterwards.”

  “Of course, Your Excellency,” she said.

  He glanced between the two of them once more before striding out of the hangar. Jenavian waited for a few seconds before following.

  “The Widow seemed oddly unconcerned about Markus,” Thexyl commented. “Or anything aside from that crystal, in fact.”

  “Yes,” she agreed, “and I’m not sure why.”

  “It could be related to how the Hierarchy knew about its existence in the first place.”

  Her brow furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

  “They didn’t want the Damadus destroyed, despite the fact that standard Convectorate policy is to immediately eradicate any remnants of recovered Dominion technology,” Thexyl explained. “I originally assumed that meant they were merely interested in recovering any research data on the Pandrophage for scientific purposes, perhaps to aid them in developing a new strand or mutation. But judging from the Widow’s reaction, they knew specifically what was on the Damadus—namely, that data crystal.”

  “Which doesn’t make sense,” Jenavian said, trying to ignore the warning tingle suddenly prickling the back of her neck. She’d never even considered things from that angle, but as usual her partner was two steps ahead. “How could the Hierarchy know to look for one specific crystal on a Sarafan ship? No Tarreen ever set foot on the Damadus.”

  “It is curious. Sadly, it appears we may never find out.”

  Jenavian sighed. Fifteen years of Spider conditioning were screaming at her to let it go, to flush the last two weeks from her memory and never look back. She’d just recovered the most dangerous traitor in Convectorate history, and nothing else should have mattered. It was time to move on and wait for her next assignment, just like she always did.

  But for some reason, today it wasn’t that easy. Nothing had been since she’d first seen Markus across the club on Briton Chalo, and she couldn’t understand why. Even after the massacre at Mirador she’d been able to bury what happened and concentrate on the next mission. It was a skill that any good operative—any good soldier—needed to learn in order to survive.

  Unwittingly, her thoughts shifted to the tens of thousands of innocent people living on New Keledon. If Minister Drathir’s reaction was any indication, the Convectorate fleet was planning to blow them all to dust…and every one of those deaths would fall squarely on her shoulders. And then, of course, there was Markus. The man who’d saved her life by dragging her off the Damadus. The man who’d nearly died to rescue her from a mob of angry aliens.

  The man she’d just handed over to the Widow to be mind-raped until every scrap of his memory had been laid bare.

  “We need to figure out what’s going on here,” Jenavian whispered. “And soon.”

  Thexyl turned to face her. If he was surprised by her reaction, he didn’t show it. “I can consult the Convectorate database and search for any useful information on the subject.”

  “I’m not sure how much the Widow will appreciate you sniffing around, especially given that you’re not technically supposed to be here.”

  “I will be discreet. And thankfully, my thoughts shall remain my own.”

  Jenavian nodded and let out a deep breath. “All right, you can use the terminal in my quarters. Just be careful.”

  “Always,” Thexyl promised. “Lead on.”