RUNNING feet sounded the alarm, and Cerren jerked awake, struggling to orientate himself. Socks nosed his hand as he struggled to a sitting position on the pallet he’d collapsed onto only a few hours before. “Cerren! Urgent news!” Erilla’s voice struck his eardrums like an assault, and he pushed himself tiredly to his feet, trying to straighten his clothing. He could feel the wisps of his remaining hair floating around his head as he pulled his shirt straight and tried to shove his feet into their boots at the same time. Her green eyes were flashing with urgency.
“Have the Garsal found us?” he asked, as a surge of adrenaline hit, and shoved him fully awake.
“No! We’ve word from Below – you won’t believe it!”
“Patrol Ten? And the second years? Have they succeeded?” He felt his hopes soar.
“No, not them,” she replied. “It’s almost unbelievable!”
“What’s unbelievable?” he replied, frustrated, “You haven’t told me what the urgent news is. So, if the Garsal aren’t attacking, and you haven’t heard from Patrol Ten, what is it? Tell me, Erilla!” He was nearly shouting.
And then she told him, and an incredulous smile spread over his face.
***
Kaidan hovered at Spiron’s elbow, watching the entrance to the ship. Something was going on. Garsal soldiers were hurrying in and out and several of the patrolling climbers had assembled near it. Faded and concealed behind a large pungo tree, he still felt vulnerable, still felt as if he couldn’t possibly have volunteered to go back inside the ship. Still felt as if it might have been the stupidest thing he’d ever done.
“What’s happening?” he whispered.
“No sound.” The words were barely audible, but Kaidan felt as if he’d been dealt a stern reprimand. There was a faint rustle, the barely seen flicker of a blue tidemark, and then he felt a quick pressure on his shoulder and they were moving back to a more concealed spot.
Once behind a grouping of rocks, Spiron spoke. “Drop the fade.” More forms than Kaidan had thought possible flickered into view. Apparently every Scout nearby had arrived inside the compound.
“Arad’s dug a hole under the fence,” said Farron, “and Jeris waits by another nearby. There’s another ten who can’t fade close by, although most of us need our cats. We can have all of us through on your signal. Fractus and Radiant are also poised to act.”
“Send a message to make sure that they don’t sacrifice themselves,” said Spiron. “It’s imperative that they don’t. Something’s going on. I’d planned to go inside, track them down and let them know, but that might be out of the question now.” He paused for a moment, and Kaidan watched on as he exchanged several glances with Barron, and then nodded.
“We’ll spread out, half circle around the entrance, concealed, and we’ll act on whatever happens. We’ve already left a few surprises around the hive, so if we need a distraction, we’ll provide one. Otherwise we wait, and look for an opportunity. Farron, you’re prime contact with Fractus and Radiant. Make sure you keep them up to date at all times.” She nodded. “Kaidan, stick with Barron. Do exactly as he says. There’s no point sending you out until we’re all out, and there’s no-one to spare to babysit you.”
For a moment, Kaidan was indignant, but then reality asserted itself. He knew how unprepared he was to deal with the perils of Below, particularly when there was no guarantee that Dipper would help. He looked down at the cat lying at his feet. For the moment it seemed that he was content to stay. Whether that would continue remained to be seen. He dropped his hand onto the soft coat, happy in the knowledge that they were both out of the ship and likely to stay so. “But Lacey, the others…”
“What will be will be, Kaidan. You’ve done your best, and now it’s up to us and the others already inside.” Spiron turned his attention to the others, nodded at Farron, and with a few hand signals, dispersed the group. They faded silently through the bush to their assigned locations.
“Come.” Barron beckoned with one hand, and Kaidan steeled himself and faded, feeling the drain as he followed him to their new position, Dipper padding at his side.
Once settled in position, Kaidan found himself directly opposite the entrance. The activity around it suddenly intensified as two more climbers clanked into position and paused facing the ship.
***
Shanna felt tension in every line of her body. Once again at the front of the Patrol, but this time linked with the others, she was still visible. Visible to every Garsal they’d passed in the corridors of the ship. She felt vulnerable despite being able to ‘feel’ each of her friends supporting her and poised to act on the slightest provocation. In the midst of the group stumbled the two captive Garsal. One was very cowed, almost bewildered, while the other, the one she’d wrestled to a standstill, stalked along, as if seething with anger. He probably was, she reflected.
Ragar had decided, and Allad had concurred, that their very visibility was essential to their exit. If they were faded, how would the Garsal know that they still held two of them captive? Perhaps they might have managed to make their way out of the ship faded. Shanna was fairly certain that she could have held the fade over all of them while they were linked, but they were too slow, and Zandany was too injured to move fast.
Still, it didn’t feel right to her. After all of the hours of sneaking and hiding, followed by the fighting, it seemed wrong to just be walking out with their mission still unaccomplished. Behind her, she could feel Allad’s readiness to ‘push’ anything out of the way. Even now, he seemed to be looking around every corner before they arrived at it. As they moved, Taya, hand now on Spinner, was casually breaking each monitor they passed. It seemed effortless in the link. Verren’s sense guided them unerringly, and even within the ship, Amma’s knowledge of where the air currents were enhanced Verren’s skills. Beside her Ragar and Zandany felt like glowing balls of energy, held in readiness, although in his injured state, Zandany’s flame felt slightly banked. Shanna herself held her ability to fade and shield her friends from sight, poised on the brink.
With her starcats ranging ahead, snarling at the armed troopers that ducked around corners and retreated ahead of them, and the rest of them circled by the others, they made quite a stir among the alien invaders. Before they’d left the battle zone, Taya had reactivated one of the monitors, and Ragar had made their position quite clear. They would have safe exit from the ship, and then they’d release Zoash and the other captive.
Shanna didn’t trust the Garsal however, and held herself poised. The unity without the fade continued to feel slightly bizarre, and she felt as if she was somehow on one side of the others, not truly one, despite all evidence to the contrary.
There was a quiet hum from Storm, and she looked at him, surprised, but the blue washed soothingly through her mind, and she relaxed a little, allowing her vision to drop into both his and Twister’s eyes. So far the terms of their exit from the ship seemed to be holding.
***
The Overlord seethed. How could Zoash have allowed himself to be trapped as he had been? Now he was forced to allow the humans and their hideous felines safe passage inside the ship. He’d been tempted to ignore his hatching sib’s presence, but if he allowed the public death of a sib, he’d lose the alliance of all.
Despite the machinations and scheming ambitions of his people, hatching sibs were those most trusted and most treasured, once primacy had been established, and most definitely during military operations. To sacrifice one publicly for personal gain would leave him an Overlord no more. If Zoash had died as a result of hidden machinations, free of obvious links to the Overlord, the other Garsal would have applauded in private, and his stature would have risen. But a public sacrifice for personal gain was anathema.
“Inform the Matriarch!” he snapped. “And alert Hoth on the plateau. Have him track down a group of humans. Preferably with offspring. Or without. Any will do.” He watched the progress of the humans. They were battered, but they were accompanied by no less than eight of the savage felines, their teeth bared as they strolled along his corridors. No matter. His word was good only for the interior of the ship – he’d made sure that his response to the demands had been carefully worded. The climbers were positioned, and sharpshooter troops had been stationed at vantage points around the exit. He would have his revenge, and he would have his specimens, and the humans upon this planet would know once and for all who was their absolute ruler. “Come. We will await them outside, and then they will die.”
***
The Matriarch drew a long breath, watching Laretai’s spy taps. “It is time. Assemble all. Lacey, attend me.”
“Yes Matriarch.”
Her voice was resolute, reflecting none of her inner turmoil. This was the moment when the plan would come to fruition, or die. And none her sister initiates, far away on their conquered worlds would know anything of her thoughts, struggles and decisions, or even the outcomes of this moment.
“Laretai. You have done as I wished?”
“Yes Matriarch. The files are sealed and poised. As soon as the communications array is replaced and operational, they will send. Hirtoi has duplicates concealed within her own personal, high security files. They will go, whether or not we live.”
“You have done well, all of you.” The Matriarch cast her gaze around the chamber. “Estei, Hirtoi, you will watch and wait. If we fall, then you are our chosen successors. You have watched and learned, and you will further the plan if we cannot.” She felt unaccustomed emotion fill her voice and her mind, and bowed her head briefly at the two young females. They returned her gesture solemnly, and left their heads bowed, manipulator arms spread in respect. “Laretai, Lacey, it is time.”
She swept from the room, Laretai, as always, one pace behind and to one side, Lacey in the place of a servant, and the assembled seniors fell in behind her, marching in formal lockstep.
***
The Overlord stalked angrily through the exit of the ship and then turned to check the troop arrangements. Five climbers sat angled around the area, covering it with their weapons. “Where are the others?” he demanded.
“It appears that the humans have sabotaged many of our mechanicals, Overlord,” replied the aide at his side. The Overlord spun, furious.
“They’ve what?”
“Most of the reserve climbers and crawlers are unable to be moved, Overlord,” the underling cowered, and then went on, “the technicians are working on the problem, but it is unclear how they’ve been immobilised.”
“Is this all that we have?” The Overlord allowed his anger at Zoash’s capture to colour his voice, and the underling cringed away from him.
“The technicians are working as fast as possible, Overlord,” he replied, voice quivering slightly, “but it is proving difficult. I am in constant communication with them.”
The Overlord turned away from the inefficient minion, furious at the damage the humans had wrought in their time undetected inside his ship. Even now, despite all the visual evidence to the contrary, his scanners were still failing to pick them up. With an uncharacteristic tingle of fear, he wondered whether there were others still inside the ship. No, it was impossible – if there were others, they would have joined their fellows, exiting the ship under escort. But a small tinge of paranoia remained.
He stomped into position on a small rise behind the climbers. It was high enough to oversee everything, and high enough to signal to his hatching sib. Zoash would know what to do when the time came.
***
The now familiar corridor loomed ahead, leading to the exit. “Almost there, Ragar,” called Shanna. She’d had to clear her throat and force the words out, unaccustomed to speaking while inside the Garsal ship while linked. Ragar had insisted on vocal communications though, for most things – vocal so that the spies would hear and believe.
“Hold firm, then,” replied Ragar. “You all know what to do when the time comes.” There was a murmur of assent, and Shanna took a deeper breath, looked ahead, and then checked her last patch. There would be enough left, she hoped.
He stomach did a small flip flop, and she steeled herself as they tramped closer and closer to the exit. Late afternoon light shone through the open portal, and she felt her mouth go dry as they reached it. She paused, allowed her eyes time to adjust from the dim interior of the ship, took one more breath, checked the link, ‘felt’ where everybody was, then readied herself to step through, into the unknown.
***
Kaidan looked down onto the Overlord’s rise. The sight of the black figure terrified him and his back itched. There’d been a moment when he’d almost run, as the creature had emerged from the ship, but Dipper had leaned his warm length onto Kaidan’s thigh and steadied him. “That’s the Overlord, Barron,” he whispered. Barron nodded, scribbled quickly, and then tucked a note into Hunter’s harness and sent him off at a run.
They seemed to be waiting for something or someone. After his long, painful familiarity with the Overlord, he could see the anger in his posture, see it in the way he moved, and in the way he dismissed his underling.
“He’s angry.”
Barron threw a quizzical glance at him, and then nodded. Kaidan returned his attention to the scene in front of him. Two starcats ghosted from the ship’s entrance, one blue toned, and the other violet. Their tidemarks rippled in familiar patterns and positions. They were followed by a familiar figure – Shanna! Close on her heels came the rest of the cadets, and Allad, and then all eight starcats began a complex circling pattern. Two black figures stumbled at the centre of the group, one beside Verren, and the other with Amma.
“It’s Zoash! The Overlord’s hatching sib,” whispered Kaidan. “The tall one. No idea who the other one is, though.” The other Garsal captive looked dazed, almost unaware of his situation.
“What’s a hatching sib?” asked Barron. “Is this why there’s a welcoming committee?”
Kaidan explained the little of what he knew about Garsal ‘family’ as Laretai had described it to him, and then Barron was scribbling furiously once again.
“You are outside, as you wished,” the Overlord said, his voice carrying clearly in the windless air. “Release Zoash.”
“We will release Zoash when we have our safe conduct from this place guaranteed.” It was Ragar’s voice, not Allad’s, which surprised Kaidan. He couldn’t keep his eyes off his sister. She looked as if she was coiled, ready to spring. Her eyes moved ceaselessly, taking in the placement of troops. Every now and then, Kaidan noticed that one of her cats would pause, look deliberately at a fixed point, and then re-join the others in their moving, weaving pattern. It was so brief that if he hadn’t been concentrating on it he wouldn’t have noticed. None of the other cats were behaving in the same way.
“I think they’ve planned something, Barron,” whispered Kaidan. Faintly, he could hear Ragar and the Overlord, fencing delicately with their words. He ignored the sounds, and concentrated harder on his sister.
“What do you mean?” asked Barron quietly. “Who’s planned something?”
“All of them,” said Kaidan. “The Garsal have something planned, I’m sure. The Overlord wouldn’t want to lose face in this way, but I’m talking about the others – Shanna and the others – there’s something…” He frowned. And then all hell broke loose.
***
The Overlord continued the sham of negotiation, waiting for just the right moment, drawing the humans along. He could see Zoash. The crumbling cretin of a trooper was of no account, but his hatching sib was watchful and waiting. His posture spoke volumes. He’d allowed one of his mid limbs to drop into a signal posture.
The Overlord sprayed a derisive sentence at the small grouping, and then barked one word loudly into the air. The sniper beams struck. Two of the humans took direct hits.
***
Shanna flicked her vision into its multiple modes as she exited the ship, hand signalling all of the starcats. They moved immediately into their maze-like circling pattern as they’d planned. She held her fade on the brink, poised for the moment, but concentrating on the link as well. It was hard. Very hard.
Faintly, she could hear Ragar, negotiating with the Overlord, and she wondered how he was managing to maintain his focus on the discussion while continuing to be a poised ball of flame to her senses. Twister and Storm had located a number of weapon bearing Garsal ‘concealed’ around the ship. They were only ‘concealed’ to themselves – certainly not to a starcat’s superior senses. Still nervous of Frontier’s vegetation, they’d used only the most rudimentary of cover. Through the link, she showed the locations to the others. She felt Taya begin to focus on the weaponry, just as Zoash broke away from Verren, and then the Garsal began to fire.
She slammed up her bubble, faster than she ever had, and leaped fully into the link. She could feel pain screaming its way into her mind. Worse, she could feel whose pain it was. Both Allad and Verren had taken hits. She heard a whine begin to escalate from one of the nearby climbers, just as the starcats leaped into action.
Several of the red beams cut off, and then she was frantically trying to make sure no-one dropped out of the link, trying desperately to make sure that Verren and Allad were still with them. Strong violet washed through her mind, and she steadied, steadied while shepherding the group concealed in her bubble. The Garsal she dismissed. Zoash and the unnamed trooper were on their own. Her one task was to protect her friends and see them safely out of this compound.
Faintly, she thought she could hear someone shouting. She pushed the thought away, ‘felt’ where everyone was and kept moving. Behind her, Amma supported Verren, and Taya Allad, while Zandany let loose with a flurry of rolling fire balls. His injuries were draining him quickly, but she pulled them all to a run, dodging to the left, knowing that the fireballs were like a trail leading directly to them. Ragar followed Zandany’s barrage with one of his own, and Shanna frowned slightly. Somehow, Allad had nudged them away from the group with his talent despite his injuries. She kept them moving though, feeling the unity rise within her of its own volition. Shielded, her starcats’ eyes extensions of her own vision, she wove instinctively among the beams of light now slashing from the climbers.
All five of them were mobile and clanking, carefully staying out of each other’s lines of fire, while very obviously tracking the lines of fireballs streaming from Zandany and Ragar towards the ground troopers.
She dodged them right, feeling the pain in Verren’s stumble, the ache in Allad’s legs, but drove them harder, and they responded, and then Taya broke the sniping weapons with her mind. Shanna felt her exhaustion, even through the link, but she could feel the other girl now turning her attention to the machines arrayed around them.
Thick smoke billowed as the scorched earth broke and stank under the Garsal fire, slagged to molten rock just in front of them. Shanna slid to an abrupt halt, looking frantically around from inside the fade. Instead of firing directly at them, the climbers were attempting to encase them in a ring of molten rock and earth.