Imploringly, I said, “Kaoti, please! Go back. Let us do this. They acted against you, not us.”
“I won’t leave you defenseless.”
“I’m not!”
Eliot stared hard at Kaoti. “Only spiders dwell here. We can protect our cousin. Go. Go amuse yourself elsewhere. Once we have completed our mission and have returned to this very spot, we will contact you and wait for your return before leaving the safety these Arachnids provide.”
Grudgingly, Kaoti stood. He’d deactivated his visual displacement shielding. “If anything happens to her….” His threat hung in the air between them like the fluttering abandoned webs. Kaoti saluted me. Then, he turned, and with thousands of eyes watching him, he walked back in the direction from which we had come.
He didn’t have far to walk, and instinctually, I knew he wouldn’t leave. Should I need him, he’d destroy the forest and all of the sentient life it contained to get to me, and he’d think nothing of it. That knowledge filled me with a strong conviction to be careful. Harming the spiders in their own sanctuary would be unforgivable.
“Thank you for believing in me. I’ll call you if I need you.” I knew he heard me, but the former assassin didn’t answer.
The dripping venom from the branches above had stopped. I assumed it meant we were being allowed to continue. Closing my helmet’s visor, a transparent map appeared in front of my eyes which showed the way to the distress beacon, deep within the forest. It couldn’t have picked a worse place to land.
“Clack.” ZeeZee moved from his defensive position over Eliot and back to his work on the thick webs ahead of us.
We made our way slowly through the untamed foliage while the spiders, who remained to protect their borders, reworked their webs, sealing us within their forest. No one would be following us, not even Kaoti.
Chapter Eleven
The forest teemed with arachnids, leaving no shortage of intelligent, watchful eyes upon us. Everywhere I looked, webs laced across branches and bushes. Eventually, Eliot halted our slow progression and dismounted his roller. “Time for lunch.” He grinned at me, reminding me yet again of Eric.
Leaving my helmet on my roller, I excused myself and found a bit of privacy behind a web-covered bush that kept sticking to my bare ass. Thunderdrop chittered at any spiders who so much as moved a leg in my direction. The twins felt heavy on my bladder, and I was relieved in more ways than one for the break in our tediously slow journey. With a hand against my lower back, we made our way back to the others.
Simon and Eliot had set up a small portable table and three camp chairs. “For you, my lady,” Simon said as he handed me a disposable hand wipe, and Eliot held out my chair.
“What is this? Is it what I think it is?” I couldn’t have kept the excitement from my voice had I tried. I plucked a pair of chopsticks from Simon’s fingers.
He said, “Our expedition has been catered by none other than Uncle Lee.”
Around a mouthful of orange chicken, my absolute favorite food in the universe, I said, “Oh, stars! This is so good!” However, it sounded more like when the kids were practicing their vowel sounds.
The words didn’t matter. Simon and Eliot could read my emotions as easily as I could read theirs, and right now they were pleased with themselves. After I had performed magic on the orange chicken and made it disappear, I attacked the wontons, dipping them in sweet and sour sauce and washing them down with sweet tea. A very loud and unladylike burp frightened the wild spiders. Hisses were aimed down at us from the trees.
“Sorry,” I said with my cheeks burning from embarrassment.
“Chitter clack!” Thunderdrop exclaimed up at the trees before launching into an angry tirade.
Cass and ZeeZee joined him. I caught images of their conversation in my mind of huge egg sacks and sighed. Our spiders were explaining to the wild spiders that I carried my eggs in my abdomen.
Simon handed me an eggroll and then started packing up while Eliot pulled something from a bag and brought it over to me. Tearing open the white package, he said, “Lift up the back of your shirt.” Curious, I complied, and he pressed the patch to my lower back. “Auria swears by these. They are safe and deliver a mild muscle relaxer to ease strain and muscle spasms. Don’t worry. Dr. Perry approves of them. Auria insisted on packing several of these for you.”
“You have a most excellent wife.”
He agreed and said, “You have excellent husbands who would rub your back for you if they were here.”
I thought of Quaid and wasn’t so sure.
“Hey, what has caused such heartbroken feelings? We’re supposed to be having fun.” Simon crouched in front of me while Eliot rubbed my shoulders.
“Something is wrong between Quaid and me,” I confessed. I plucked at the fabric covering my knee.
Simon asked, “What happened?”
I glanced at his pale blue eyes. “I don’t know. It all started on Epopeus. I met a woman on the beach, and she hinted that Quaid was no longer satisfied with our arrangement.”
“He would never divorce you, Teagan. The man adores you,” Eliot assuredly stated.
“I know he loves me, but am I enough for him? We don’t see each other very often. Maybe, he needs more. I think he’s been avoiding me since Epopeus because he won’t be able to hide it from me, especially now that I can draw on Zared and Izaac’s abilities. What if he wants to take another wife? What if he wants Jemaphera Totesh of Epopeus?” I scowled, not knowing whether to be angry or sad.
Simon shrugged. “What if he does? Laconian males typically take as many wives as they can support. It is their way just as taking several husbands is the way of Parvac females.”
“Isn’t fair, fair?” Eliot asked.
Honestly, I said, “No, I won’t be sharing Quaid. I know I’ve said that I haven’t placed restrictions on my Laconian husbands, but I could take a bitch out with a blaster or even a probe so very easily.”
“Teagan, shame on you,” Simon scolded.
I shrugged. “I’m learning things about myself. I’m jealous and possessive, and I’m okay with it.”
Eliot asked, “Have you spoken to Quaid about your concerns?”
“No, he’s avoiding me. He didn’t see me on Epopeus, didn’t help us when our ship was trapped by a debris field, and didn’t come to our aid when the pirates attacked. He’s here, right? Have you seen him? Did he rush to the land port to see me?”
Eliot said, “Eric was here only long enough to refuel. He came for dinner and left yesterday morning. Perhaps, it is something else entirely.” His hands left my shoulders, so I stood so he could pack my chair.
“Unbelievable. We could have died, but he couldn’t spare a day.”
Simon dropped his gaze to the dead leaves upon which his knee rested. “Sweet cousin, I vow to you, if Quaid Bosh breaks your heart, I will crush his face with a single punch when next I see him.” He stood and flexed an impressive bicep at me and encouraged me to feel it. Squeezing his arm, I laughed at him.
Returning to our rollers, we resumed our mission through the thick foliage. Quickly, I became grateful for the additions to my roller. The shields protected me from brambles, but not from stray lines of silk which soon covered our rollers, clothing, and helmets. When we stopped to rest, we had to wipe ourselves down with solvent. I recognized the smell. Gina had once used it to remove spider braids from my hair.
Simon and Eliot were discussing the best way around a felled tree and a large rock formation, so I took out my brush, removed my gloves, and braided my hair before making a loop of it and securing it so that would fit under my helmet. My left hand caught my attention.
The iridescent shimmer residing on the metal of my meteorite band had come to life. It almost seemed to dance. Pulling on my glove, I hid it before my cousins could see it but not before the wild Silk spiders did. They watched with black eyes and chirped excitedly. A small one jumped onto my roller’s handles and blinked at me before hopping down. He and Thunde
rdrop chirped and clacked at each other. At times, Thunderdrop seemed confused. Not all spiders on Arachne communicated verbally with one another, but these did. They had a few peculiar sounds original to themselves, but they seemed to be trying to teach their visitors their meanings.
ZeeZee and Cass made excited clicks.
Hearing them, Eliot asked, “They want us to follow them?”
“Clack,” ZeeZee confirmed.
Mounting our rollers, we found ourselves surrounded by spiders who were being far more welcoming than they had been. They led us back in the direction from which we had come for a quarter of a mile before taking us off to the left, but they were clearing their webs for us and giving ZeeZee a break.
Through our helmets, Simon said, “They are leading us around the rough terrain.”
“Yes, but why are they now helping us?” Eliot asked.
I had an idea that it might have been the alien’s influence. If we could sense it, why couldn’t they? Maybe, when I had found it on Luna 241, it had been weak, and now it was stronger from having had some rest. I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t even sure that all of us weren’t sharing a delusion where the alien was concerned. I patted Thunderdrop. He was riding on my back. With the wild spiders’ assistance, we made far more progress, but the sun had gone, and we decided to make camp.
We were sharing a tent, but Simon set up a second small one into which he placed a portable waste unit. I took full advantage of it. Bouncing around on a roller with twins on my bladder all day hadn’t been fun. Finally, the time came when I could rest. Pulling off my boots, I stretched out on my cot. Aches and pains made themselves known in my back, thighs, and shoulders. Eliot set up a solar heater in the center of our tent, and Simon handed me a bowl of shrimp, scallops, chicken, and fried rice. The three of us sat in silence and ate. Thunderdrop, Cass, and ZeeZee were close but were hunting their own dinners.
“So, are you going to tell us what you’re keeping a secret?” Simon took a bite of an eggroll and waited for me to respond.
Freezing briefly mid-chew, I belatedly realized my error in attempting to hide something so monumental from my cousins. Both of them were trying to be unobtrusive but couldn’t help but to be curious. “I wouldn’t want what I know to put either of you into awkward positions with the Galaxic Government.”
Eliot grinned. “What if we promise to keep it a secret?”
Raising an eyebrow, I asked, “Even from Eric and Gina?”
Eliot inclined his head to me while holding my gaze, a silent vow to keep his silence. “Even from them.”
“You can trust me. I won’t breathe a word of it,” Simon promised.
“As we know, words aren’t always needed.” I sighed. Captain Espanoza had probably already reported her findings and suspicions. I pulled my left hand out from beneath my blanket and held it up to the soft glow provided by our heat source. I wouldn’t have been able to conceal it for much longer. Rather than the faint iridescent shimmer it had been, now it was a frenetic prismatic glow, as if it had used its time with me to heal. “Can you feel it?”
My cousins concentrated and wore matching expressions of befuddlement. Taking my hand in his, Eliot asked, “What is it? Teagan, what is this? It’s sentient. I could swear it, but it’s a light.”
“We aren’t completely certain what it is or from where it came but believe it’s an alien lifeform.”
“How?” Simon asked. He held up a hand and shook his head at me. “From the beginning.”
“Well, it all started with the discovery of the probe that almost sent us to war….”
We passed the evening in our tent where I told them about the events on Luna 241, about the pirate attack, and about our suspicions in regard to the lifeform.
“They know. They must. It’s the reason Eric trapped your ship. I’d bet a million credits that I’m right,” Eliot said.
Simon said, “I agree. It is this and not some love interest which keeps Quaid away.”
“Then, why wouldn’t they send him to me to spy on us and find out what we know?” I doubted Simon was right, but it did give me another angle to consider. “What about the pirates? Who hired them to attack us?”
“To be certain, you’ll need to await reports from your men. However, my guess is that a third party knows about that,” Eliot said while pointing at my ring.
“Then, why did they leave it all alone on a rarely frequented lunar base?” I asked.
“Perhaps, someone was hiding it there.” Simon laid down on his cot and put his arms behind his head.
“Well, I need to protect it. I don’t know why I feel so strongly about doing so, but I do.” Looking down at my ring, I felt pity for the entity residing there. “It’s all alone.”
Quietly, Simon said, “It is, just as you once were. If anyone can reunite it with its kind, you can. Now, let’s get some sleep. We have a beacon to find.”
The three of us got comfortable and drifted off to the sounds of crickets and other small insects which had escaped becoming meals to the spiders who called the forest home.
Morning came all too soon. My various aches wanted me to stay in bed, but the twins, shoving themselves against my poor, tortured bladder, had other ideas. Keeping my groans to myself, I checked my boots for bugs before slipping my feet into them. Simon and Eliot were still sleeping, so I tried to be as quiet as possible as I left the tent.
ZeeZee, Cass, and Thunderdrop watched me from a web they had constructed above our tent. After seeing to my needs and washing up as best I could, I started our breakfast and had it ready by the time my cousins woke up.
Pouring himself a cup of coffee, Eliot said, “You didn’t have to do all of this on your own. You should have woken me.” He yawned and stretched, pulling his hands back down when he encountered webs not of our spiders’ making.
“I didn’t mind. Did you sleep well?”
He grinned and scratched at the stubble on his cheeks. “That’s the most uninterrupted sleep I’ve gotten in months. Evan likes to sneak into our bed each morning and wake me up by jumping on my gut. Oh, how he laughs.”
Chuckling quietly with him, I said, “Evan’s new cousins have that in common with him. They haven’t really been kicking me, but they move into some uncomfortable positions.”
Sitting, we enjoyed our coffee in silence while watching the forest come to life. Fuzzy morning light twinkled against dew-covered webs and filtered through green leaves. All around us, the world was shades of green and brown. Tree trunks, too large to wrap one’s arms around, formed mighty pillars as if they held up the sky. Closing my eyes, I breathed in deeply. This was my peace. This was what I needed to remember in times of internal turmoil or in times of outward strife. This was my calm, but I’d never master emotional detachment or be able to exist again in the way I had before Yukihyo and my family had destroyed my walls. As a child, learning to bury my empathic senses had been a defense mechanism, protecting me from Nathan Green’s hate and abuse. I wasn’t a defenseless child anymore, and I didn’t need to hide behind anything or anyone. I held my cup up in a silent toast to the forest.
Eventually, the smell of bacon and eggs lured Simon from the tent. While rubbing sleep from his eyes, he said, “We need to go on camping trips more often simply for the purpose of catching up on sleep.”
“What does Suzy do to wake you up?” I asked.
“She climbs free of her bed, rips off her diaper, and runs around the house laughing.”
I choked on my coffee while trying not to laugh so I could swallow.
Eliot said, “Evan rides ZeeZee. It terrifies Auria. She’s made ZeeZee promise not to climb anything while Evan is on him. I’ve told her not to worry. He attaches a line to him every time and would never allow him to fall.”
A deep clack of agreement sounded from above.
Staring at Eliot, I said, “I can relate to Auria’s fear.” I shuddered. “Peter climbs everything. It makes me a nervous wreck.”
Once the food and coffee wer
e gone, we packed up and mounted our rollers. The wild spiders were ready to lead us through their forest. Lowering my helmet’s visor, I studied my map, noting the beacon’s location.
Simon said, “We should reach it by tonight if we make good time.”
Eliot glanced around at all of the webs. They’d made it as difficult for us to traverse the forest as it was for insects to fly in it. All of us were caught. However, now the wild spiders were assisting us. Activating my roller, I followed behind Eliot. The spiders kept their distance from us but tunneled a path through their webs for us to follow. I decided if I were ever in any mortal danger, I’d hide out here.
We were covering twice as much distance with their help. After a brief lunch and a few minutes spent stretching our legs, we continued our journey until hours later when the spiders stopped clearing the way. Thunderdrop listened to the clicks and odd sounds they made from high above in the trees around us and deeper within the forest. Then, he showed me an image of continuing on foot.
Having learned the same information from Cass, Simon said, “We have to walk the remaining distance to the distress beacon. Will you be able to handle it?”
“I’ll be fine. It’s not far.” I dismounted my roller but kept my helmet on for two reasons: I needed the map; and the long strands of webs hanging from the trees in this part of the forest were thick with dead bugs which I wanted nowhere near my hair.
Simon held out his hand, so I took it. The ground over which we walked was uneven with tree roots. Our rollers could have made it over them without any trouble, but the spiders didn’t know it. Other than us, the Enforcers, and Kaoti, they hadn’t had many humanoid visitors.
“Look,” Eliot said. He stopped and pointed at the forest floor up ahead.
We hurried to catch up to him. Our guides clung to trees watching us, judging us. Our spiders, seeing something Simon and I hadn’t, chirped reassurances at them. Then, at Eliot’s side I looked where he pointed. Small spiders ranging from the size of my palm to the size of a dinner plate scurried across the leaf-strewn ground or practiced climbing trees.
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