“So that’s it?” Allyce asked. “He’s gone?”
“He’s gone,” Nicole confirmed. “Back to Philly. I hope he’s happy there.”
“I’m sure he is,” Allyce murmured. Lying on the medical center bed, her latest batch of meds on a tray beside her, she looked ten years older than she had even a few days ago. “I wish I could have said good-bye. He wasn’t a bad man, you know. No worse than some of the rest of us, anyway.”
“I know,” Nicole said. Dr. Sam McNair. The man who’d once hoped to sidetrack Nicole’s humanitarian efforts in the Q4 arena by trying to get her drunk. The man who, when that didn’t work, had tried to poison her.
But of course Allyce didn’t know any of that. “I’m sorry, but there was no other way,” Nicole said. “I needed to see how much noise or light the teleport system made, and he was the only one around to try it with.”
“You could have sent one of the Thii and then had the Wisp bring him back,” Allyce said.
“And then what?” Nicole countered. Allyce was weak and hurting, and down deep Nicole knew it was a waste of effort to argue with her. But she was tired, too, and right now her tolerance and self-control levels weren’t very high. “There was only one Wisp in the room, and they can only teleport one at a time. I was barely able to get to the other teleport room and out the door without being seen. There was no way we could have done it with two of us and two trips.”
“How do you know they can’t carry more than one at a time?”
“Because when they brought me here from Earth they had to send two more Wisps for Bungie and Sam,” Nicole said. “Would you rather I ran off and left Sam with Ryit and the Koffren?”
“Why not? He wouldn’t have gotten in trouble. Everything he did was according to Shipmaster instructions.”
“Except the part about letting me break free and get them spider gunned.”
“That was you, not him.”
“You know that,” Nicole said. “But they don’t. Do you think Ryit would believe Sam hadn’t betrayed them? Or the Koffren?”
Allyce closed her eyes. “No, I suppose not,” she said, her antagonism disappearing. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Nicole said, her own brief flicker of fatigue-driven stubbornness fading as well.
The first thing she had done once she and Cambria returned from Q1 was to locate Jeff and confirm that he and the rest of his diversion squad had also made it back safely. After that had been a long, hot shower in her room, followed by a quick snack. Only then did she think to come to Allyce to tell her how things had worked out, and to thank her for her help in creating an antidote to Sam’s drug.
In retrospect, her brain probably would have done better with a nap than a shower and food. “I am sorry I couldn’t bring him back.”
“I know,” Allyce opened her eyes again and smiled tiredly. “Maybe I should have let the Shipmasters bribe me into betraying you instead.”
“You’d never have made it past that first Koffren,” Nicole said, a shiver running through her as she thought back to his voice and murderous stance at that encounter. “The one who calls himself Justice. He’s furious about what you did up in the treatment room. Deal or no deal, if you’d been there he would have killed you.” She reached over and gently touched Allyce’s hand. “Don’t worry. We’ll get you home.”
“That’s okay,” she said, closing her eyes again. “Maybe it’s not even worth thinking about. After twelve years … Tad’s probably decided I’m dead or run away and moved on by now. How soon after you disappear can they declare you dead?”
“I don’t know,” Nicole said, wincing. That thought hadn’t even occurred to her. Could everyone aboard already have been declared dead?
That would be bad. Very bad. Going home had to be the main motivation for most of the people who’d accepted her leadership in this war. If she couldn’t deliver on that implied promise, what else could she possibly offer them?
“But at least we’re in charge of the teleport room now, not them,” Allyce said, visibly dragging herself away from the depressing thoughts of home and the husband the Wisps had snatched her away from. “I’m glad it worked.”
“It worked perfectly,” Nicole assured her. “Oh, and this will give you a laugh. Remember that you put the antidote in a square capsule? Turns out Sam used one of those for a second dose, telling Ryit and the Koffren it would kill me.”
“Not sure he was right,” Allyce said doubtfully, frowning into space. “The design profile he put together when he designed the drug was very specific about the dosage parameters. Doesn’t mean a second dose would have been exactly good for you, though.” Her face twitched with sudden understanding. “Oh! You’re saying that when you brought it out, they all thought you were about to kill yourself?”
“Exactly,” Nicole said, smiling tightly. “I couldn’t have asked for a better way to keep their attention on me if I’d tried. It was perfect.”
“Well, I did have a fifty-fifty chance with the capsule choice,” Allyce pointed out. “But if you want to credit me with extra insight or brilliance, I don’t mind.”
“You deserve every bit of credit we can give you,” Nicole assured her.
The door slid open and Jeff walked in. “There you are,” he said, nodding to Nicole and then Allyce. “Firth thought you were still in the dining room.”
“No, I’m here,” Nicole said. “I wanted to bring Allyce up to date on everything. So have you figured out yet how many Koffren we’re dealing with?”
Jeff wrinkled his nose. “It’s a work in process,” he said. “I think there were eight of the beasts visible before they got to the drones and smashed them. Levi thinks there were only seven; Iosif is pretty sure there were nine or ten.”
“So with the two in the teleport rooms, we’re talking ten to twelve total?”
“Right,” Jeff said. “Unfortunately, that assumes they didn’t have another battalion or two in the corridors who didn’t have time to show themselves before the vanguard got to the drones. So it could be ten or twelve or a whole lot more.”
“I don’t think so,” Nicole said. “I got the impression that the Koffren really wanted to intercept Sam and me before we got to the teleport room. If they had a bigger group to draw from, you’d think they’d have put more than just two of them on that job.”
“Good point,” Jeff said. “Still, even just twelve makes for a pretty hefty stack of enemies.”
“And no more drones to hunt them down with,” Allyce said.
“Not a problem,” Jeff assured her. “We always assumed the Shipmasters could monitor their cameras. We just needed to come up with a situation where we could use that against them. And we’d already drained the paralyzing drug out of the drone’s whips for possible future use, so I’d say we got our money’s worth.”
“Good,” Nicole said. “I’m thinking the Ponng and Thii arrows might be the place to use that. Though we’ll need to do some tests and make sure the stuff adheres well enough to stay there until it’s delivered.”
“It will,” Jeff said. “I took a good look at those arrowheads, and they’re made of an odd kind of porous material. I’m thinking the Shipmasters might have designed them with an eye toward adding poison for some future test.”
Nicole shivered. “Lovely.”
“Agreed,” Jeff said sourly.
“Speaking of drugs and poisons,” Allyce said, “did the Ponngs get back yet with my cyanide mix?”
Nicole frowned. “What cyanide mix?”
“They heard about what I did to the Koffren and asked if I could make them another batch,” Allyce said. “I told them some of my original mixture was still upstairs in the animal treatment supply room—tenth level, bahri something.”
“And you sent them up there alone?” Jeff asked.
“I didn’t send them anywhere,” Allyce said, a bit crossly. “It was their idea. And they’re not alone. Nicole’s Wisp—Cambria—went with them.”
“Wait a second,” Nicole said. “The Ponngs asked Cambria to go with them, and it obeyed them?”
“I don’t think they ever asked it anything,” Allyce said. “They left, and it left with them. My point is that the mix is very dangerous, and I need them to bring the container here right away before someone mishandles it.”
“Yeah,” Nicole said, frowning as she crossed to the door. Her five Wisps were supposed to be attached to her and Jeff, and only because she’d specifically added Jeff to the list. What in the world was Cambria doing, wandering off without orders?
Could the whole anchoring thing be starting to unravel? Cambria and the others had been Q3 Wisps before Nicole woke them from their trance, or whatever the hell it was she’d done. Could they be reverting back to that orientation?
But in that case, how was Cambria even able to move around in Q4? As far as she could tell, the only reason her Wisps could see Q1 and Q4 was because of her. Maybe it had followed the Ponngs because they were all it could see?
Whatever the reason, she needed to figure it out before all five suddenly walked out on her.
“Trouble?” Jeff asked, moving aside as she reached the door.
“Maybe,” Nicole said. The door slid open and she looked out. Jessup was a few feet down the corridor, standing guard over Allyce and the medical center as Nicole had ordered it to. “Jessup? Come here, please.”
The Wisp glided over, and Nicole took its arm. Where is Cambria? she thought at it.
I don’t know, Jessup replied.
Nicole frowned. What do you mean, you don’t know? I thought you could see Wisps and other people anywhere aboard the Fyrantha.
I can see only Q4.
You can’t see Q3? But you all came from Q3.
You are here. While you are in Q4, we can only see Q4.
So if I were in Q1, you could only see Q1?
Yes.
Nicole glowered down the corridor. A damn good thing, then, that she’d arranged to have Cambria come across from Q3 after she and Sam went over instead of before. You still obey Jeff, right?
Yes.
If Jeff were in Q3 and I were in Q4, could you see both quadrants?
Yes.
Okay, so that was a little better. Still, it was a limitation she needed to remember.
She half turned to see Jeff watching them, his eyes wary. “I asked it where Cambria was,” she relayed, letting go of Jessup’s arm. “Turns out it can only see the quadrants where either you or I are.”
“Interesting,” Jeff said. “So Cambria’s not in Q4 anymore?”
“Oh,” Nicole said, wincing. She’d been so busy tracking through this latest twist of Wisp logic that she’d completely missed that point. “No, I guess not.” She took Jessup’s arm again. What about Moile and Teika? Can you see them?
I can. They are on level 10 in bahri-four-four-six.
Nicole frowned. Wasn’t that the storage room where Allyce had concocted her cyanide mixture? She was pretty sure it was. What are they doing?
They are doing nothing. They are motionless.
Something cold ran up Nicole’s back. How long since they last moved?
Thirty-five minutes.
“Damn,” Nicole muttered, again letting go. “The Ponngs are in trouble.”
“The cyanide?” Allyce asked, her voice dark with dread.
“I don’t know,” Nicole said, pushing past Jessup. “I’m going to check.”
“Hold it,” Jeff said, catching her arm as she started down the corridor. “Let’s get a party together—you, me, Iosif, and a few more.”
“There’s no time,” Nicole insisted. “They may still be alive.”
“Then at least grab a couple of your Wisps,” Jeff said. “We’ll leave Jessup here to watch over Allyce and call Lehigh and Hagert.”
Nicole clenched her teeth. Finding the two Wisps would take time they might not have.
But he was right. After the Koffren humiliation in the teleport room, the big aliens would absolutely be looking for her head. “All right,” she said. “But make it fast.”
“Two minutes,” Jeff promised, squeezing her arm and setting off at a fast jog. “Pretty sure I know where they are.”
Two minutes later, as promised, they were off. Five minutes after that, with the two Wisps having carried them up twenty-two levels with their usual speed and efficiency, they reached Allyce’s supply room.
Where they found the two Ponngs.
“Oh, God,” Nicole muttered under her breath over and over, staring at the unmoving figures as Jeff crouched down beside them. She knew she should be doing the same—checking for life, examining injuries, doing something—but the sight of her two beaten and bloody companions somehow had frozen her to the deck. “Oh, God.”
“The good news: they’re both alive,” Jeff reported. If he was bothered by her lack of usefulness, he at least wasn’t saying anything about it. “The bad news: they’re in pretty bad shape. We need to get them to Allyce right away.”
“Right,” Nicole said, breaking free of her paralysis. “Lehigh? Hagert?” She beckoned to the two Wisps, standing just inside the door. “Come help.”
“We need to keep them as flat as possible,” Jeff warned. “There may be broken bones or internal injuries.”
“I know,” Nicole said as the Wisps joined her. “Wisps: stand side by side and stretch your arms out in front of you, waist high.”
They did so. Nicole motioned to Jeff, and together they carefully lifted Moile from the floor and set him across their arms. “You and I will be carrying Teika?” Jeff asked.
“For now,” Nicole said. “As soon as we’re out in the corridor I’ll call for more Wisps. Hopefully, enough of them will show up that we can hand him off to them.”
For once, one of her plans worked as she’d hoped. They’d made it to the next cross-corridor when six Wisps appeared in answer to her call. She and Jeff handed off their burden, the Wisps confirmed that they understood her order to take the injured Ponngs to Allyce, and the whole crowd glided their way toward the heat duct.
“What’s the plan?” Jeff asked quietly as he and Nicole watched the others go.
Nicole gazed at the injured Ponngs, her throat tight and aching. If you will provide for my people, Moile had said when she first met them back in the Q3 arena, I will be your slave. So will Teika, if you wish it.
Nicole hadn’t wanted slaves. She still didn’t. Whatever the Ponngs called themselves, she’d never used that word, even in her own mind. She’d always thought of them instead as allies, maybe even friends.
And allies and friends were supposed to look out for each other.
“We’re going to find out what happened,” she said. “And we’re going to rain hell on whoever did this.”
“Agreed,” Jeff said darkly. “Where do we start?”
“Where everything always seems to end up,” Nicole said. The procession of Wisps disappeared around a corner, and she turned toward the animal treatment room. “We’re going to have a little chat with Caretaker Ushkai.”
They found the familiar hologram waiting as they made their way between the rows of treatment cages. “About time,” Nicole called as they approached. “Where the hell were you the last time I was here?”
“I was told to not speak with you,” Ushkai said.
“Really,” Nicole said. “Told by who? The Shipmasters?”
There was a brief hesitation. “I was told by the Oracle.”
“So who told the Oracle? The Shipmasters?”
“No one told the Oracle,” Ushkai said. “The Oracle spoke for itself.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. You would have to ask the Oracle itself.”
“Yeah, if I could find it I would,” Nicole growled. “Never mind. What happened to the Ponngs back in that supply room? And don’t tell me you don’t know.”
“Of course I know,” Ushkai said. “Your fellow humans found them and beat them.”
Nicole felt her mouth drop open. What in the world? “That’s crazy. None of us would attack them. They’re our helpers. Our friends.”
“They’re not friends to all of them.”
“But—”
“Oh, damn it,” Jeff bit out. “He’s talking about Bungie.”
Nicole bit down hard on the curse that wanted to come out. Of course it was Bungie. Bungie, and Trake, and all the rest of the Trake’s worthless gang. “Which means it was the Koffren,” she said.
“Well, they’re the ones who sprung them,” Jeff said. “So, yeah, probably.”
“I guess we’ll just have to find them, won’t we?” Nicole said. “Where are they, Ushkai?”
Ushkai paused again. Thinking? Listening? “They await you on level 36 near Q3 heat-transfer duct access door four,” Ushkai said. “They will speak with you there.”
“Will they, now?” Nicole said. “And what the hell makes them think I’ll show up?”
“They have one you care about,” Ushkai said hesitantly.
Nicole frowned. “Who?”
“They don’t understand—”
“Who?” Nicole screamed. A sudden, horrible premonition of what he was going to say …
“The Wisp,” Ushkai said. “The one you call Cambria.”
No! Nicole filled her lungs to scream again.
The scream never came. Suddenly, unexpectedly, the blazing anger and rage and helplessness swirling like storm clouds inside her vanished.
And in its place was a dark, hard, frozen resolve.
“I see,” she said, almost wincing at the complete lack of emotion in her voice. “Well. I guess I’m going to Q3. You coming, Jeff?”
“Of course,” Jeff said. “We’ll just stop by the hive first and check on the Ponngs, okay?”
Nicole smiled. Yes; they should check on the Ponngs. They should probably check on Allyce, too. And then they could go and make sure Trake and Bungie knew exactly what it was they were facing here.
Before she killed them all.