StarCraft

by Timothy Zahn

  “Exactly,” Valerian said. “That also means that if that leviathan takes off, it’ll be the one we least suspect that he’ll be aboard.” He lifted a finger as another piece fell into place. “Also, we know now from the survey team’s discovery that whoever controls the psyolisks does so via commands delivered through one of those biomechanical transmitters. Possibly commands that are pitched too high for humans or protoss to hear—Dr. Cogan’s team has already found high-frequency capability in the psyolisk carcass Zagara sent us. We also know Mukav has the same kind of transmitter aboard her leviathan because that’s how she first contacted us. That was how Abathur could listen in on the battles at the focal points and direct the psyolisks.”

  “Yet if he was already safely off the planet, why would he come back?” Artanis asked, still sounding unconvinced.

  “I can answer that one, Hierarch Artanis,” Halkman put in. “As Emperor Valerian said, he needed to be here to watch over the situation, make sure we all played the parts he had planned for us, and fine-tune the script if we went off-book.”

  “Which still raises the question of how an evolution master became that good at strategy,” Valerian said. “We still need to figure that one out.”

  “Maybe he did a little work on himself between psyolisks,” Matt suggested. “Or on Mukav. He could hardly sneak his psyolisks aboard without her knowing, so she would have to be in on it with him.”

  “And adding enhanced tactical ability to a queen would be harder to spot than adding it to himself,” Valerian said as the pieces fell together. “Anyway, Abathur was in the conference structure during the attack at Point One, so he couldn’t have run that one himself.”

  “So Mukav is the brains, and he’s the one who made her that way?” Matt asked.

  “However it works, we can sort it out once we have him,” Valerian said. “Right now, we need to draw him into the open. That’s why I told Zagara to bring the leviathan to Point Three. I want to get our people aboard without arousing suspicion.”

  “That assumes Abathur won’t simply ignore Zagara’s summons and stay put,” Matt warned.

  “He won’t,” Valerian assured him. “Remember, we set all this up using a transmitter he can tap into. As far as he knows, we’re handing him the perfect opportunity to get a jump start on his escape. With his leviathan already in space, he can get out from under most of our weapons without any suspicion or resistance on our part.”

  “And if Zagara’s with him when he runs, it’ll make her look equally guilty,” Halkman pointed out.

  “Which would fit perfectly with his overall plan,” Valerian said. “So once you’re aboard, Lieutenant, your mission will be to locate Abathur and detain him.”

  “Understood, Emperor,” Halkman said. “And the same with any psyolisks we find?”

  “I recommend their destruction,” Artanis said.

  “I agree,” Valerian said, a message on one of the displays catching his eye. “Speaking of which,” he added, keying the biolab into the circuit, “Dr. Cogan has just come up with some numbers for you. Dr. Cogan?”

  “Thank you, Emperor.” Cogan’s voice came over the speaker. “Okay, these are preliminary numbers, so don’t lean too hard on them. We’ve done an initial workup on the psyolisk, including a first-order attempt to sort out the percentages of xel’naga and non-xel’naga. It’s always hard to tell with an unfamiliar species, but by comparing their genetics to the adostra sample Dr. Wyland sent, and taking into account the number of psyolisks already killed—”

  “Dr. Cogan,” Valerian prompted.

  “Sorry, Emperor. Bottom line: we estimate Abathur could still have anywhere from three to five hundred psyolisks to play with.”

  “Of which most will be aboard the leviathan, I assume?” Halkman asked.

  “Probably,” Valerian said, wincing. That was a lot of psyolisks for three terrans and a protoss civilian to take on.

  Artanis was obviously thinking the same thing. “You will need assistance,” he said. “I will send a phalanx of warriors to accompany you.”

  “With all due respect, Hierarch Artanis, I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Halkman warned. “Zagara’s supposed to be a willing passenger on a harmless leviathan. If we throw in a whole bunch of extra troops, protoss or Dominion, Abathur may smell a rat and take off.”

  “And we will shoot him out of the sky,” Artanis said darkly.

  “If we do that, we’ll never learn the full truth,” Valerian said. “Lieutenant?”

  “I think we can handle it, Emperor,” Halkman said. “But we’re going to need new armor and weapons. A fresh jump pack would be useful, too.”

  “I’ll switch you over to the quartermaster,” Valerian said. “And if we don’t speak again before you board the leviathan, Lieutenant, good luck.”

  “Thank you, Emperor,” Halkman said.

  “Transferring you now,” Matt said, and keyed the control.

  The indicator light from the comm winked out. “I do not agree with this plan, Emperor Valerian,” Artanis said. “It is fraught with uncertainty and risk. If you are wrong, and if Overqueen Zagara’s goal is to bring a leviathan into our midst, we will find ourselves embroiled in battle in a position of terrible weakness.”

  “I know it’s dangerous, Hierarch Artanis,” Valerian said carefully. Surely Artanis wasn’t going to pull out of this now? “But I think it’s the only way to know for sure.”

  “And if I refuse to assist? If I now draw the protoss forces away, and leave you to face Zagara and her leviathan alone?”

  Matt was watching him very closely. “Then the Dominion will stand alone,” Valerian said. “But before you answer, allow me to remind you of some history.”

  “What sort of history?”

  “The only history that matters,” Valerian said. “The history between the terrans and the protoss. You remember Chau Sara?”

  On the display Artanis’s skin was going mottled. “Yes,” he said, his voice very alien.

  “You remember what the protoss did to those colonists,” Valerian said. The mottling was a sign of intense emotion, and the distant thought struck him that he was pushing the hierarch pretty hard.

  He didn’t care. “You remember that there was a faction of the Confederacy—and later the Dominion—that was all for wiping the entire protoss race out of existence,” he continued. “Do you remember why that goal was abandoned?”

  Artanis didn’t answer.

  “Because a man named Jim Raynor made a decision,” Valerian said. “He decided to trust the protoss executor Tassadar, and therefore your people. That was the turning point, the start of the path that’s led us here.”

  “And you wish me to make that same leap of trust?”

  “Raynor had plenty of evidence that the protoss weren’t to be trusted,” Valerian said. “But he listened to Tassadar’s story, and his version of the protoss’ reasoning, and decided to take a chance.

  “Right now, we’re standing in the same place he was. We’ve seen the devastation the zerg can cause, and yet we hear Zagara tell us that she and the Swarm have changed. I’m willing to take that leap of trust. Are you?”

  He gestured toward the planet below them. “If my plan fails and we can’t resolve this, there may be war. But if we don’t even try, there will be war.”

  For a moment Artanis was silent. “Do you remember what you said to me on the planet? That the protoss were a noble race that had served as guardians for many other species. Do you remember what I said in return?”

  “That it was easy to stand above others when the Khala bound you together,” Valerian murmured.

  “I have been thinking further,” Artanis said. “Perhaps nobility and honor were never meant to be easy. Perhaps there was always to be risk involved. And perhaps there can be no nobility without trust.”

  He drew himself up. “The protoss struck first before, Emperor Valerian, on Chau Sara. That action cost many lives across the years, and even now is a poison be
tween our peoples. I will not again attack first. Not here, not now. I will follow your path, and trust in your judgment. And the protoss will regain our nobility.”

  “You never lost it,” Valerian assured him quietly. “Thank you, Hierarch. Whether we rise or fall today, we will stand together.”

  Artanis inclined his head. “I will await your word.”

  His image vanished from the display. “Well,” Valerian said, turning to Matt. “It’s up to the team now.”

  “Yes, it is.” Matt hesitated. “You don’t expect them to survive, do you?”

  Valerian sighed. “Probably not,” he said. “No, they’re very likely going to their deaths. Or worse—I may be sending Tanya Caulfield straight into the hands of the zerg’s evolution master, with all the horrific consequences that implies. But if they can prove that Abathur is there and get him to admit his part, we may yet defuse the crisis.”

  “And you’re going to accomplish this how?”

  “By letting Abathur think he’s won,” Valerian said. “Get me the quartermaster. I have an order of my own for him.”

  Tanya had always known leviathans were big. Everyone knew that. The creatures were huge, in fact, bigger than Dominion battlecruisers or protoss carriers.

  But it wasn’t until now, walking up to one lying angled across a set of hills, that she fully appreciated how huge they really were.

  And they were supposed to find a single evolution master and a bunch of psyolisks in all that?

  As usual, Whist had had an answer.

  You just need to think like a marine, he’d assured her as the four of them had prepared to leave the adostra cavern, very likely for the last time. Don’t worry about finding the enemy. Odds are, the enemy will find you.

  It had not, in Tanya’s opinion, been a particularly encouraging thought.

  Tanya Caulfield? Ulavu’s thought came. Are you all right?

  Just a little nervous, she assured him. Ulavu was walking on the far side of Zagara from Tanya, the two of them flanking the Overqueen while Whist took the lead and Dizz took the rear. It was probably supposed to look as if the four of them were escorting a prisoner, though from a purely tactical perspective their positioning was incredibly stupid. Their only hope was that Zagara truly wanted peace, and was willing to go to extraordinary lengths to achieve it.

  They were already seriously pushing that commitment. Valerian had forbidden them to tell Zagara the truth about what was going on, lest Abathur get wind of it through the zerg psionic connection, and the Overqueen was none too pleased with the travel arrangement. Even without Tanya’s limited teep power, she would have been able to tell that Zagara was bristling with the indignity that had been foisted on her. Luckily, she apparently wanted to avoid war even more than she wanted to preserve her dignity.

  What she would think—and do—when she learned how she’d been manipulated was anyone’s guess. Tanya wasn’t looking forward to that.

  At least they were as well equipped as possible for the imminent meeting. A dropship had delivered a new CMC powered combat suit for Whist, replacing his battle-worn one, along with a new gauss rifle and all the ammo magazines he could carry. Dizz had similarly been brought new reaper armor and a fresh jump pack. Tanya herself had been given a full helmet to replace the ghost visor she’d left with Erin, plus a new canister rifle courtesy of Emperor Valerian himself.

  The rifle was all for show. Hopefully, Abathur wouldn’t realize that until it was too late.

  Ulavu, as the civilian everyone aboard the Hyperion still thought he was, had been offered a return trip aboard the dropship. He’d refused, citing the possible need for more insight on zerg and zerg mentality.

  Tanya was still not sure how she felt about him and his long deception. But for the moment, she was just happy to have him at her side.

  Still, against a leviathan holding up to five hundred psyolisks, three terrans and a protoss were a pretty pathetic showing.

  Hopefully, Abathur would think so, too.

  There were several sphincter-type openings visible in the leviathan’s thick hide, she saw as they approached, each leading into a dark, ribbed tunnel. Whist looked back at Zagara, who silently indicated one of them, and the group headed inside.

  The tunnel they found themselves in had a very different feel from that of the adostra chambers. There, the general sense had been one of space, even airiness. Here, everything was much closer, verging on claustrophobic. Every surface was pockmarked with nooks and crannies, making footing difficult, and there were a multitude of smaller tunnels and ducts that headed off at random places and in random directions. The group was quickly forced into single file, with Whist and Tanya leading the way, Zagara in the middle, and Ulavu and Dizz behind her.

  And unlike the adostra chambers, once they moved out of view of the sunlight outside, the tunnel had no illumination except the beams from their own lights.

  Tanya kept her light tracking across the surfaces as they walked, peering tensely into each tunnel big enough to hold a psyolisk. If Abathur decided to pick them off on the way to the leviathan’s control center, this tunnel was the perfect place to do it.

  But no attack came. It was so quiet, in fact, that Tanya began to wonder if Emperor Valerian had been wrong about Abathur’s plan. Valerian’s theory was logical enough, but even logic was of limited use when some of the pieces were being filled in by guesswork. If Abathur wasn’t aboard—or if he had been aboard but had already left—then they would be back where they’d started.

  And logic and theories weren’t going to keep Artanis from incinerating the planet.

  They are here.

  Tanya felt her breath catch in her throat. Are you sure?

  I can feel them, Ulavu confirmed. You cannot?

  No, Tanya said, her last wisps of doubt blowing away. If the psyolisks were here, surely Abathur was, too.

  “Everyone stay sharp,” Whist murmured.

  They’d been walking another ten minutes, and Tanya had started to feel her share of the brain buzz, when she finally spotted a hint of dim light in the distance. The light grew stronger as they approached, and she sensed the subtle changes in Whist’s mind and posture as he slipped into full combat mode.

  And then, suddenly, they were there. The tunnel made one final sharp turn and opened into a chamber at least half again as big as the main adostra caverns inside the mesas.

  Whist stepped inside, breaking to his right. Tanya followed, taking the cue and breaking to the left.

  Visually, the chamber was like a roomier version of the tunnel they’d just left. Like the tunnel, the chamber had walls that flowed into floor and ceiling without any hard edges or sharp breaks, and there was the same sort of texturing and multitude of side tunnels. Standing motionless near the entrance, watching as the group filed in, was a zerg queen, her body shape and limb arrangement subtly different from Zagara’s. Set into the wall near her was a duplicate of the transmitter they’d dug out of the Point Three ceiling.

  And standing in the center of the chamber, instantly recognizable from the pictures Valerian had sent, was Abathur.

  Behind Tanya, Zagara stepped into the chamber and came to an abrupt halt. Abathur?

  The zerg—Abathur—gesticulated with his smaller, inner limbs. Tanya could feel something at the very edge of her mind—

  “Hold it,” Dizz said. “I know you’re surprised to see him, Overqueen Zagara, but let’s not forget you have guests. Let’s have a conversation—”

  What do you do here? Zagara’s demand pounded against Tanya’s mind like a winter rain, and she was barely able to get out of the way as the Overqueen strode past, her eyes blazing, her limbs stretched and poised to slash and tear, heading straight at Abathur.

  The evolution master flinched once, then stood his ground. Abathur does what is necessary for Swarm, he replied.

  You betray the Swarm, Zagara insisted. She continued toward him, and for a moment Tanya thought she was going to physically run him down. Instead
she stopped just in front of him, her limbs held high, her claws twitching as if they were trying to go for the evolution master on their own.

  Once again, Abathur held his ground, even in the face of the clearly furious Overqueen. Maybe, Tanya thought, he had more courage than she’d realized.

  Or maybe he simply knew that he had the upper hand.

  Overqueen Zagara speaks of treachery. The other queen spoke up, taking a step toward the group. I am Mukav. I will speak their words.

  “Thanks, but we’ve got it,” Dizz said.

  Yet the nuances may escape you, Mukav said, taking another step toward them. I will stand ready to interpret.

  No explanation owed, Abathur said to Zagara, his mental voice grating and insolent. But explanation will give.

  Do so, Zagara ordered, and Tanya had the sudden mental picture of a tightly coiled spring. The Overqueen was just barely restraining herself.

  Swarm supreme, Abathur said. Swarm unique. Meant from beginning. Will be again.

  The Swarm will always be unique, Zagara said. You give no justification for betrayal.

  Did not betray Swarm, Abathur insisted. Betrayed only betrayer.

  Who is this betrayer?

  Abathur’s claws twitched. Overqueen. Overqueen is betrayer.

  “How can she betray the Swarm?” Dizz asked. “She’s the Overqueen. Anything she does is by definition the will of the Swarm.”

  Both zerg ignored him. For a moment the mental confrontation degenerated from understandable words into images, emotions, and sensations that spun by too quickly for Tanya to keep up. All she could sift out of it was that Abathur was defiant and unapologetic, and Zagara was furious and ready to rip him apart with her bare claws.

  What she didn’t know was that Abathur had a hole card.

  Slowly, Tanya sent her gaze around the room, peering into each of the darkened tunnels as best she could. Unfortunately, all of them had the same twisty curves as the one their group had entered by, which meant there could be psyolisks lurking unseen in every one of them.