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by Corrie Garrett
Irina rested her foot on a low bench and sneezed. The plants in the labyrinth tickled her allergies, or perhaps it was the fresh air itself. The very freshest air on the whole ship surrounded her, shoved through one point two miles of tightly coiled corridors lined with fern, ivy, azalea, and other top-of-the-line air purifiers.
She’d passed a group of adolescents cleaning sun bulbs, and a group of even tinier kids harvesting grape tomatoes. The labyrinth was crawling with children every day, one of the few ways to build tolerances on the Aegea. Irina herself had grown up on another Diadem ship, perhaps that was why her eyes streamed when she approached this place and she even felt vaguely claustrophobic here in a way no other part of the ship affected her.
She would never admit that to anyone; she was no victim to be tormented by claus, the worst of the mental illnesses in her opinion.
She could touch both walls at once with her hands, and the ceiling was only a foot above her head, but that was not unusual, and she refused to allow the dangling greenness of it all to perturb her.
Irina was tall and sturdy, not an ideal body type on any of the Diadem ships, but her mind was as sturdy as her body and she would never allow irrational fears to rule her.
In this section of the labyrinth, gourds dangled like undersize punching bags from scaffolds on the ceiling. Racks on the walls held herbs interspersed with lilies, and here, at least, it all looked healthy. She sneezed again and continued further in.
Although it was called the labyrinth, there was no way to get lost in here. One tunnel, all the way through. Positive pressure from the center kept the air flowing outward to the rim. If you did get confused or disoriented, you only needed to lick your finger and hold it up. The windward side was further in, leeward side was the way out. That was what they told the children anyway.
Irina took a sharp left, and then another one as she followed the path. Although it was barely more than a mile long, it felt like much more with all the twists and turns.
The Aegeans swore the purification of the labyrinth made their ship the healthiest of all.
Irina had her doubts as to the true benefit of this monstrosity. After all, her own home ship, the Griffin, had not had a labyrinth and their children were not stunted from formaldehyde build-up or lack of systemic challenge to the immune system. She was taller than most of the men on the Aegea, for heaven’s sake.
At the next turn, the herbs gave way to rows and rows of green onions. It was a Smell. A handful of kids wielded scissors, trimming them down to the dirt and stacking the green shoots on a large plastic tray. One child simply sat, with her hands limply in her lap, and a distant look on her face. One finger twitched rhythmically.
Irina had to turn sideways to edge by them, and the kids paused to look up at her with their mouths open; except for the one little girl. Perhaps she was one of the kids off the Rumi. Irina had heard there were behavioural problems already. But what could you expect after what they’d been through?
As the path turned again, she heard one of the kids whisper, “Hoo, she’s big.”
Irina’s mouth quirked up. She was fairly certain her size had carried her application to the top of the pile for peacekeeping officers.
During the Pauses, when the eight ships of the Diadem stopped accelerating for a few months, a great shuffling occurred. The individual ships, which usually travelled far apart to minimize risk, all linked up to the Necklace, creating a brief window of opportunity.
Pauses happened every twenty years, allowing for the mingling and rearranging of the population and resources of the ships. They were a Herculean feat of organization. The ship captains and a host of section heads synchronized transition, repair, redistribution, transfer requests, competitive games... anything and everything that could help the ships and the passengers handle another twenty years of space travel.
Irina had been ready. Her application was filed months before the Pause began. She was told not to get her hopes up. The Aegea was shaping up to be particularly popular; there were unaccountable swings in desirability during each Pause.
But Irina had included her physical stats (optional) and had gotten an interview only two weeks into the Pause. That was even after the shock of finding out that the Rumi had suffered catastrophic losses and the remaining passengers would have to be divvied up among the other ships.
Now here she was. Of course, she was the lowest ranking officer on the peacekeeping force, besides being an outsider, but she’d expected to pay her dues. She was on a trial run until the end of the Pause and she was determined not to get kicked back to the Griffin for the next twenty years.
As low man on the team, hiking to the center of the labyrinth and staking it out tonight had fallen to her. There were reports that someone was stealing from the depths of the labyrinth. She didn’t yet know exactly how the record keeping worked with this place, it seemed a mess to her, but several supervisors had confirmed the theft over the last two weeks.
They’d stationed guards at the mouth of the labyrinth, but no one was coming out with extra. The kids who came and went were searched, and they all swore up and down they hadn’t eaten a thing. Visitors from the other ships were only allowed in the labyrinth with an escort. The guards had begun giving breathalyzer tests, and they said no one was coming out with malic or citric acid on their breath either.
Irina had her doubts about all the kids in here, but at least a stakeout could tamp down some of the speculation.
Irina carried a sack on one shoulder with her water bottle, hard rations, and a tablet. The chief told her she might as well finish reading the Aegean Code of Misdemeanors and Petty Crimes. She’d already worked her way through Felonies, Endangerment, and Deterrence: Aegean Judicial Rulings. And of course she’d studied the basic guidelines for peacekeepers, scanned a welcome booklet for new citizens of the Aegea, and a glanced at a book called Life Transitions and Emotional Health on the Diadem, which was required reading for all who switched ships.
Until today, Irina had only been in the mouth of the labyrinth, and that only a few times. It was a popular place for Aegeans to show off to strangers, just as the people on her ship showed off the cricket field.
The cricket field, an unbroken expanse of grass carefully cultivated from a clump of weeds found in a dung container, was one of the Griffin’s only claims to fame. Anything that took up an egregious amount of space and resources tended to become one of the wonders of the Diadem. And strangers from the other ships usually exclaimed with polite amazement, while they inwardly scoffed at the waste of space. Each visitor wondered why they’d used their limited space for this. Instead of something sensible.
Irina arrived at the other end of the labyrinth about thirty-five minutes later. The tunnel opened out into a round room, perfectly elliptical like an egg. The sloping walls and roof and even the floor gave her a vertig assault, but at least it was a little wider here. Red, plastic cones blocked off the entrance to the egg room, and Irina stepped around them. The floor was covered with creeping herbs, except for a few paving ‘stones,’ synthetically produced by the ship’s 3D printers.
The stones looked and felt ‘down,’ but as she stepped in, her perspective shifted and instead the tunnel became slightly down, like a rabbit hole slanting into a hill. This end of the labyrinth was near the core of the ship, and the rotational gravity became a bit wonky here. Or rather: it decreased in the exact ratio as defined by the circumference and velocity of the ship’s spin, but the human inner ear didn’t understand that ratio. So the mind often forced perspective shifts like a good Escher painting.
It was worse on the Aegea than the Griffin. Of the eight Diadem ships, the biggest was the Necklace, of course. Then there were four disc ships, including the Griffin, and then three smaller spike ships. The Aegea was one of the small ones.
Irina rubbed her eyes and turned slowly in place to let her body adjust. There were no children in this part of the labyrinth, and the loudest sound was the drip of the water in the molecule lines. A soft shushing came from the vents that lined the upper portion of the egg. This was where the air was forced into the labyrinth. There was no exit or entrance for people on this end. Only one entrance, one point two miles behind her. Deep breath.
If she didn’t allow claus thoughts to form, she wouldn’t succumb. Being big, Irina had faced more than the average number of taunts and challenges. She’d once spent fifteen hours in a clothes recycler on a dare. She’d fallen asleep, actually, otherwise she never would have made it so long. She still held the Griffin record.
Irina sat on one of the paving stones and leaned back against the curving walls, resting her head against a vent. It blew her short hair around her ears and cooled her neck and back.
She could see where the thieves had been. The vents were crisscrossed by gnarled grapevines trained onto plastic frames. Many glossy green leaves had been torn off and littered the floor. They stood out among the darker greens and textures of the herbs. Even some of the grape vines themselves had been half-pulled from the walls. One vine as thick as her wrist dangled from a scrap of bark. Only a few sad grape clusters could be seen, and Irina had been assured that there should still be many.
The egg room was special, often a place where marriage proposals were made, and newborns consecrated. With dispensation from the gardeners, the event could even take place here, and the bride and groom ate a single grape to celebrate and commemorate the moment.
Well, there weren’t many left and that made the Aegeans angry.
The Pause would end soon. There were a lot of intent-to-marry contracts being signed and a lot of people wanted to use the egg. And of course in another nine to twelve months, those who had gotten married would start presenting their little bundles here.
Irina had to admit, if this was the work of kids, they’d been greedy little beasts about it, and quite stupid, too.
Who would notice a stolen grape here or there? If they wanted to snatch a few, they could do it without causing so much trouble.
Now it had become a sensation. An omen, even. This was the second to last Pause in their journey. In forty years, God willing, the Diadem would arrive at Sirius II. Irina would be sixty-five. The Diadem life expectancy was eighty-one, so she had a good shot at making it. That thought was growing on everyone under the age of fifty: I could MAKE it.
The idea of a mutated crop disease was an unspoken but lasting terror, so the more violent aspects of this grape problem had been widely publicized, lest anyone fear a microbial pest.
That decision made sense, as far as it went, but now people were talking about the “beast” of the labyrinth.
Something aggravated and selfish like this was viewed with deep misgiving. And Lord help the stupid soul responsible, because the Aegeans would not be forgiving of the person who sullied the excitement of the Pause.
Irina stretched. Her back was already stiff from the unnatural curve.
Truly, this was the most uncomfortable place. No wonder Mauricio had laughed and grimaced when she told him her assignment was to stay the night. He was at least eighteen inches shorter than her, it would probably be easy for him to curl up and rest in here.
Not that she was going to rest. Irina intended to keep her eyes wide open. If any thief did show up, she’d catch him. She would not foul up her shot on the Aegea.
#
After several hours, the smell of onions and herbs had abated considerably. Irina’s nose must have adjusted. She unwrapped a hardbar and nibbled on it while she tapped through the long document.
The rations tasted different here. The bar was salty, rather than sweet, with chunks of olives and dates mixed into the protein. It was a weird flavor, but then she hadn’t changed ships to maintain normalcy.
The sun lamps had gone dark three hours ago, and only tiny LEDs in the floor offered any light beyond her tablet. And those were mostly obscured by foliage.
Irina lay back on the floor as she chewed and propped her feet against a section of vent. That was a bit better for her stiff spine but still not ideal. Plus, her head dangled off the flat, plastic stone uncomfortably. She scooted down, but now the edge of the rock cut into her lower back.
Irina wedged her water bottle under her butt and sighed.
It was going to be a long night. Supposedly no one knew she was here except a few of the peacekeepers. Even the kids she’d passed were to be told she’d left early if they asked. Mauricio was the guy stationed at the entrance tonight and he would probably work it in even if they didn’t ask.
A slight clicking noise filled the egg.
Irina froze. From her vantage point on the floor, she could see the whole curved vent. While sitting here in the semi-dark, alone, she had indulged a few creepy speculations about those vents. They were the obvious other entrance, if anything was entering, and thoughts of mutated rats or other horrors had given her a few shivers. There were no rats on the Aegea or the Griffin, but she’d heard rumors of an infestation on the Necklace and they were linked up now...
But the clicking sound, though it came and went, did not grow louder. The vents didn’t so much as shudder.
Nothing was coming through.
Irina slowly sat up. She’d allowed her tablet light to go off, so it was quite dark now.
She clicked on her wrist light: a tiny white LED on a strap that every crewman and passenger wore. A quick sweep around the vents confirmed it; absolutely nothing.
She was facing away from the tunnel when she felt the hair on her neck stand up. Maybe it was the slightest breath of air going the wrong way, or maybe it was a primal human response to unseen eyes, but she knew something had come.
Irina swung toward the tunnel, her light and taser in front.
Flickering movement, but near the ceiling. Her eyes focused upward, and she yelped.
Long, jointed, hairy legs. Sparkly, multifaceted eyes. Shiny carapace peeking out from stiff bristles.
Spiders? Beetles?
There was a trail of them, and the foremost was almost directly overhead. Irina could not retreat further. She bent her knees and shifted a little to the right. The insect-thing didn’t react, but kept crawling. One hairy leg after the other. It was huge and unspeakably awful. It had to be as big as her two hands together, and she didn’t have tiny hands.
The vine it clung to ripped partly away from the ceiling and the monster swung inches from her face.
Irina felt like she might choke on her tongue. Or puke. Her heart might pound its way into her stomach.
But she didn’t move. The spider found its footing and crawled back up the branch to the ceiling.
Another was just behind it.
A third was exiting the tunnel.
Irina squatted down and swallowed the growing amount of fear-induced spit in her mouth.
She counted five spiders altogether. They began cutting and (ugh!) sucking the last few of the grapes.
It was her duty to watch and document this problem, nightmare, more like, but she was on the brink of leaving a dozen times.
Claustrophobia was the worst of the mental sicknesses, sure, but Irina didn’t have that. For the first time, she understood the nerve-level horror that people described. She had never felt this kind of utter revulsion. It was so strong it tasted of metal and set her thighs to shaking. Was this how Ellen had felt in a closet? Irina hoped not.
There were other animals on the Diadem, she had never reacted like this. There were even bee pollinators on three of the ships, so she was familiar with insects.
But these...
Irina shuddered and swallowed. She ought to get a picture maybe, but it was hard to move.
The thought of one of those hairy legs touching her shoulder, her hair, or, bah, her face nearly undid her.
Somehow, she managed to wait while they finished their nightly meal.
They started back toward the tunnel by some unspoken agreement.
The last, and biggest one, crawled back across the floor, inches from her kneeling legs. It looked even more ungainly upright than it had while hanging.
And how did these things get here? She’d heard nothing about spiders on the Aegea, and she would have, if this were known. Like the big bats on the Griffin or the tiny goats on the Drake.
Irina followed their progression, first just with her eyes, and then on foot. Where would they go?
She left several feet between her and the last one. She tried not to consider how fast it could move and how quickly it could swarm back down the tunnel and up into her face...
Every time they turned a corner, she half expected they would have disappeared, but they were always still in sight. Shiny, hard shells reflected her light.
They seemed to have no interest in losing her.
She’d lost track of how far they’d gone when she turned onto a longer corridor and smacked her head against something hard.
It swung out of the way, but still hurt. Irina put up a hand felt the smooth, cool rind of a squash.
Of course, she’d noticed these before.
The hanging vegetables cast weird shadows, but at least this part of the labyrinth was fairly straight. She stopped to give the spiders more space.
They weaved down the row, now on the wall, now on the ceiling. Irina would see this in nightmares for the rest of her life, she was certain. The third spider mistakenly got on one of the gourds and swung like a drunkard, twitching a horrible leg in the air.
And then... it slipped inside a seam in the gourd. First a leg or two, then its body, and finally it drew the last few legs in, a birth in reverse.
In her dim light, it disappeared. How did it fit? Why did it fit?
She watched carefully as the others followed suit, each with their own hanging nest. They must fold themselves up impressively to fit inside.
Did they hollow out those gourds for this purpose? And no one noticed?
When the spiders where entirely hidden from sight, Irina forced herself to take a closer look. There was a seam alright, but nothing was visible but puckered rind.
Earlier she’d ducked around these carelessly, even playfully swung one with her hand.
How did the crazy Aegeans not know about this? An infestation was a Big Deal. Any unregulated explosion of animal life was going to use resources allotted for other purposes. Possibly catastrophically. She’d only seen five spiders, but there were undoubtedly more. In the labyrinth? In the air ducts or the recycling chutes?
But... if the spiders were an endemic problem, there should have been signs of their feeding before the last few weeks. Had they only recently been introduced?
Anyone who saw one of those crawling along a hall or out of a vent would have notified someone. After they stopped screaming.
And why did they eat grapes? Surely that wasn’t the crop they’d grown to adulthood on.
With a roll of nausea, it hit her that perhaps these weren’t adults, as she assumed, but infants.
It was too much. Irina stumbled backward and then turned to retrace her steps to the egg and retrieve her things. Her stakeout was done. She knew the answer.
#
When she got back to Nightmare Row, as Irina now mentally dubbed the spider’s lair, she was not ashamed of crouching and scurrying to the other end.
By the time she got to the labyrinth exit, Irina was walking confidently again. Her gait lengthened, her neck straightened, and her arms swung, perhaps a touch mechanically, but they swung, darn it.
Mauricio sat comfortably, cross-legged, in the medium-sized hall outside. The blessedly clean, straight lines of the hall seemed brightly lit compared to the labyrinth. All the nighttime LEDs weren’t shrouded in leaves out here.
Mauricio looked up from his tablet in surprise, with his ready smile. “What? Solved already?”
His eyes were perhaps a bit deeper-looking than normal, more shadows, but otherwise he showed no sign of staying up half the night on a hard floor.
Perhaps her confidence was more ragged than she realized, because he immediately got to his feet and the smile disappeared. When he stood, his head barely reached her neck.
“Are you alright? Something happened?” He gripped her elbow, perhaps to comfort her, and Irina automatically shook it off. Personal space was sacred on the Griffin. She wasn’t used to the casual contact allowed on the Aegea.
“I saw our thieves,” Irina explained. “Giant spiders or beetles. They had eight legs but the bodies looked long.” She couldn’t repress one last shudder.
“Spiders?” he repeated blankly. “We don’t have an infestation.”
“You’ve got something. I only saw five, but there’s probably more.”
“Where? Show me.”
Irina rubbed her neck and took a swig from her water bottle. Oh, how much she did not want to go back in there. “They’ve hidden themselves well. I suspect they’ll have to send biologists from the zoo to identify and remove them. But, oh hell, I guess I need to show you. I probably need corroboration. Can you leave the mouth unprotected for half an hour?”
“As long as we’re inside.” He gathered his tablet and slid it into his own knapsack.
The immediate chamber in the labyrinth was twice the width of the rest of it. Mauricio stretched upward but then grinned and gestured to the top of the doorway. “Would you tug that screen down?”
Her insistent tug brought down a heavy-duty mesh screen. It clicked into a channel on the floor, and a red light lit on the wall.
“Are we locked in?” Irina brushed a spray of ivy off the light. This place just got worse and worse. By the end of the night, she might be happy to get kicked off this ship.
“No, it’s always open from the inside. It’ll prevent anyone coming in on us. Except people with the code.”
Irina took a deep breath. Back into this rabbit hole then.
“Captain’s going to be furious about an infestation.” Mauricio led off into the first narrow corridor.
Irina silently thanked him for not making her go first. “I guess your ship will have to do a purge.”
“It’s your ship now too.” He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Unless these beasts change your mind.”
“They almost might. You haven’t seen them yet.”
He sighed. “When this news spreads, I bet ninety percent of the applicants for the Aegea will hedge off. It’ll change all the lists. Even the arrangement for the Rumians.” His shoulders twitched in the dim light as he walked. “I wonder who would want that?”
Irina eyed the dark strands of denuded tomato plants. “You think someone purposely introduced the spiders here?”
“It’s possible.” He counted on his fingers. “First, there’s people who want a transfer to the Aegea and can’t get one. Second, there’s other admin who aren’t getting the pool of candidates they want. Third, possible grudges against the Aegea?”
“I wouldn’t rule out straight-up vandalism either,” Irina said. “Or even terrorism.”
Mauricio wobbled his head equivocally. “But we’re so close to Sirius. Surely terrorism or sabotage wouldn’t be...”
“There’s never a time people aren’t crazy.” Irina knew that well. “But I admit self-interest is more likely.”
“After you show me, I’ll call up a list of everyone who’s been escorted into the labyrinth. It’s less than you’d think. Most outsiders don’t want to go in.”
“Imagine that. Do you think you can figure it out tonight?”
“Well, we’ve got six more hours. I’d rather try than just sit out there and vegetate. The real question is, who has spiders? The reported infestations are usually leaked. Everybody’s heard about the rat problem on the Necklace and the slugs on Thun Phu. No one has admitted to spiders.”
“Besides the regular livestock, we have a colony of fruit bats on the Griffin. Pollinators, not an infestation,” Irina added. “I assume the zoo on the Necklace has insects... but that seems too obvious.”
Mauricio slowed as they came to a particularly dark patch in the leafy corridor. Only a few brilliant bits of green leaf showed where the LEDs were hidden. “You realize, if these are not endemic... if they were kept secret, this is a major violation. A conspiracy even. And if they cause a panic, on top of the Rumi disaster...”
Irina grimaced. “Ugly.”
They reached Nightmare Row too rapidly for her. This place got smaller every time she went through.
“Those five gourds.” Irina pointed. “I know they look fine, but... are you laughing?”
“No. Yes, a little. Sorry. When I met you, I wondered what it would take to shake your poise. Didn’t think I’d find out so fast.”
“How wonderful for you. If you want to verify what I’ve said...”
“It wasn’t an insult. Everybody has their fright. I can’t stand...”
Irina threw up a hand. “I want to leave as soon as possible. So if you’ll prod one of those things until you get a look, I’d appreciate it.”
Mauricio tentatively swung one of them, then knocked on it politely. Irina rolled her eyes and he grinned at her again. “How big did you say...” he broke off to listen to a quiet clicking.
“Yes, hear that?” Irina said.
He tapped it more gingerly, keeping himself at arm’s length. He even fingered the seam, which Irina could barely watch.
Eventually, he broke off the vegetable, twisting it round and round until the vine snapped, leaving a crushed, pulpy stem dangling above. He tossed it in his hands a few times and Irina backed to the far edge of the section.
“How about I stomp on it?” he offered.
“Best case scenario: you’ll have a terrible mess.”
Mauricio’s mouth twisted uncertainly. He took a few steps away from her and then firmly whacked the squash on the straight edge of a bench.
He jumped back as he finished, and his body almost blocked Irina’s view of the spider drunkenly tumbling off the bench. It clambered halfway up the wall and then fell back on the floor. It landed on its back, eight legs waving helplessly. And grotesquely.
Mauricio let out a string of shocked expletives, only half of which Irina knew. The rest must be Aegean slang.
#
The spider righted itself and this time climbed carefully onto the bench. It rocked back and forth a few times, then started up the wall. It went directly to the next hanging gourd and sliced it open.
Mauricio whistled. “Did you see that fang?”
A slurping noise followed.
“Can it possibly eat the whole interior? You’d think it’d be too much mass.” As he spoke, yellowish goo dripped from the dangling spider, making a soft splat on the floor. “Never mind.”
But Irina, firmly clenching her core to keep from shivering, was having another thought. “It’s so ungainly. I thought it was just its species, but maybe it’s not from a spike ship.”
Mauricio raised his eyebrows. “Not used to our short-diameter gravity. Or maybe even our spin direction. That’s a good thought. It’s also not bothered by us.”
“Definitely used to people,” Irina admitted.
Mauricio edged closer to the spider. He raised a hand and Irina sucked in a breath when he hesitantly touched one of the spider’s legs.
The spider paused, but not in a threatening way. Even Irina could tell it was not in pounce mode, but merely waiting.
Mauricio lifted his hand even higher—stretching onto his toes—and stroked the bristly carapace. The clicking noise started louder than ever. It made Irina jerk, but Mauricio held still. The spider twisted around and gently crawled onto his arm. Irina watched through slitted eyes, barely breathing.
Mauricio held still as it reached his shoulder. The clicking kept going, friendly and... lonely? Mauricio patted it wonderingly.
“I think...what if it’s a pet?” he said.
“Ugh.”
“I mean it. It’s a fascinating creature, and it’s almost purring.”
“Who would sneak a pet like that on this ship? Who would even want...”
Their eyes met and Irina could tell they’d had the same thought.
“The kids,” she said.
“From the Rumi.” He stretched out his arm and the spider obediently climbed back up and resumed hollowing.
Mauricio pulled out his tablet and to the messy sound of slurping and splatting, they looked at the list.
The survivors of the Rumi medical disaster were mainly kids. Eighty had already been resettled with foster families on the Aegea. Five of them had made special requests to visit the labyrinth. It had been immediately granted; who didn’t feel awful for these kids who’d survived their parents’ death and the crippling difficulties of finishing the voyage with a skeleton crew?
“But weren’t they... checked? Searched?” Irina protested.
“They were all medically cleared on the Rumi. I suppose they were allowed to bring personal belongings...”
Irina nodded slowly. “The spiders could have been hidden anywhere after the initial check. In a teddy bear. Rolled in a pair of pants.”
It was still just a theory, but Irina felt the fit, the settling she sometimes got when she found an answer.
But she didn’t feel relieved. In fact, she felt a sense of dread worse than before.
There were nearly five hundred kids from the Rumi. How many spider pets could they have had? How many ships were the spiders already on? How fast could they lay eggs?
And, this was the real dread, what kind of backlash would this draw down on those kids?
Mauricio must have been thinking something similar. “They won’t be punished, surely. The Rumi was in disarray. They should have declared the spiders, but kids can be secretive, especially when they’ve suffered.”
Mauricio seemed like a good guy. He certainly was ready to sympathize with these kids despite the mess they’d caused.
But somehow he didn’t have any idea how much anger people could direct at kids if they felt justified. And people were so on edge at the moment. She’d even heard that there would be deterrence hearings for the children of the scientists who inadvertently caused the Rumi disaster. Deterrence, as in the courts would punish the kids for the sins of the parents, in order to prevent anyone else taking illegal risks. At the worst level, they might even sterilize them. There was no greater punishment than ending a family line before the colonization of Sirius.
This spider thing... it wouldn’t be a sterilization matter, at least. But people would be furious at the risk. They’d take it out on the kids.
Suspicion, dislike, contempt.
She could hear the name calling.
Spiderspawn, arachkids, freaks.
And the spiders would mostly be killed, if there were more. The biologists might let a subset into the zoo on the Necklace, but if there were many, they’d be exterminated. Or left to starve, freeze, and sublimate on the Rumi.
Irina looked back at the spider. It was half inside the gourd now. It was disgusting, but was it some kid’s lifeline?
She had to know. Tomorrow this story would explode beyond all influence of hers.
“I’m going to see those five kids. Tonight. Can you send me their flat numbers?”
“You want to find out how many more there are? You think they’ll tell you?”
“Maybe. Probably. I can be intimidating.”
“To what end?” The spider was almost completely inside his new home now. The occasional yellow pulp squirted out like tobacco spit.
“What if there’s not more? Or... only a few? We could collect them all. Put them back on the Rumi and let the kids tell the officials the right way. Maybe we could get them labelled therapy animals, or perhaps they could be trained... like the bats.”
“And I stupidly pegged you as a ‘by the book’ officer.” He winced. “You realize how big a deal it would be if we cover this up? What if they already laid eggs?”
“I thought of that. We should know by the end of the Pause. If there’s the least sign we missed some, I’ll confess the whole thing. You won’t be implicated at all.”
“The heck I won’t. There’s still the labyrinth damage to explain.”
“Inexplicable. People won’t care so much once it stops. Plus they’ll be distracted by the legitimate and safe request of the children to bring new animals onto the Diadem. If I have to confess, just say you stayed outside the labyrinth. I lied and never told you what I found.”
“They’ll kick you back to the Griffin. At best. At worst...”
“I know.”
“It’s worth it to you?”
Irina pictured going back to the Griffin, for twenty long, tiring, and lonely years. Or worse, the long-term prison on the Necklace. She pictured the little girl’s limp hands and old eyes. If these kids faced even more trauma... “Yes, it is.”
Mauricio nodded. “Alright. Let’s go. I know a guy who might even operate the slide carriages for us during off hours, let us back onto the Rumi before morning.”
He twisted the gourds free, one after another. He slid three into his knapsack; it bulged, but fit.
Two went into Irina’s bag. It caused her no small twinge to settle it on her shoulder.
Mauricio squeezed her arm and this time she didn’t shake him off. “Unflappable,” he said. “We’ve got five hours. Let’s see how much mess we can undo before morning.”
Outside the labyrinth, they looked back through the mesh. Mauricio hitched up his knapsack with one hand. “If this fails miserably, I’m gonna miss this place. It’s the smell of home.”
Irina hesitated, and then put her hand on his. She didn’t know what to say, how to express her appreciation for his help, when he barely knew her.
He smiled and twisted his hand to squeeze her fingers. “And if this doesn’t fail miserably, maybe you’ll come back here when more grapes have come in. Maybe you’d come back with me?”
Irina tugged her hand free. “I was trying to say thank you, not propose. Let’s see if we can’t repatriate these things.”
“Right. I’ll ask again when you don’t have spiders on your back. It’s off-putting. I’m conscious of it myself.”
Irina laughed despite everything.
Their footsteps echoed quietly down the corridor and the spiders clicked inquisitively from their sacks.
-o-
Corrie Garrett lives in the sunny Los Angeles area with her husband and four kids. She loves classic science fiction, from Isaac Asimov to Andre Norton, and enjoys writing science fiction and fantasy with an old-school vibe and a bit of romance. She is the author of the Alien Cadet trilogy and several stand-alone science fiction and romance novels.
Homepage: https://corriegarrett.wordpress.com
Mailing List: https://corriegarrett.wordpress.com/cadet-mailing-list
