by Gini Koch
“A good point, DeeDee,” Doven said, excitedly. “I have not been thinking, but I may have a solution. It will only work for a short while, however.”
“A short while is all we’ll have,” Roy said. “And, yeah, I think I know what you’re planning and I should have thought of it, too.”
“Apologize later,” Tresia said. “What is the plan and what do we out here do to ensure it succeeds?”
“Doven, I see what you plan,” Ciarissa said. “I can assist. However, unless the three of you outside the ship can return within the next minute, you will not be able to return until or unless the Diamante cruiser that’s about to enter our space leaves.”
“And you’ll have to maintain radio silence, too,” Roy said tightly. “Meaning if you run into problems, we won’t know.”
As he said this I heard Dr. Wufren chuckle and realized he’d moved to the hole we’d crawled through. “Yes, we all should have thought of this. Horror makes decent minds a little slower, children, that’s all.” He returned, still chuckling.
I was getting tired and nudged Tresia. She took the laser cutter from me and continued the work I’d started. My turn to go take a look at the ship. And, as I did so, I just managed not to say the same as everyone else – we all should have thought of this already.
A Quillian with Shaman Powers was able to alter the look of any ship they were in. And Doven was the best of them – at least, per Doven himself, the best of those still left alive. However, even if the best Quillian Shaman returned from the dead, I’d put Doven up against them in terms of skill. If it flew, Doven could alter its shape and appearance at any time and in any way.
Of course, this time, Doven had really outdone himself.
He’d altered the Hummingbird to look just like a Diamante Cruiser.
I had no idea how long Doven could hold this apparition, nor did I know what Ciarissa was doing to shield our minds telepathically while also giving any nearby telepaths the idea that we were Diamante crew. But now that we’d all gotten back with the program we ran regularly, I just knew that’s what they were doing.
Whether or not it would work was the big question.
I went back to find that Tresia had almost finished cutting out the Birthing Sac. We’d left a lot of space between what I hoped were still intact chambers and living Pillar young and where we’d sliced through the remains of the ship holding them, so if there was something we couldn’t see that kept these chambers safe we wouldn’t harm it.
There was still plenty of ship between our almost removed section and the exterior remains of the hull. Meaning Tresia was right – we were going to have to cut our way out of here, one way or the other.
As Ciarissa whispered, “Silence, they are here,” in all our minds, Tresia made the last freeing cut. Dr. Wufren and I grabbed hold of the now floating Birthing Sac while Tresia turned off the laser cutter and hooked it over one of her arms. Then she also took hold of the Sac.
As far as I could tell, the Pillar inside were still alive and in some form of stasis. Of course, I wasn’t the ship’s doctor, or a doctor of any kind, so my opinion was more hope than science. And unless our gambit worked, we were all going to be spaced, literally and figuratively, anyway.
As the last of my kind I probably should have been more willing to leave and protect myself. And I might have been able to be coerced, possibly anyway, if Willy and Roy hadn’t made me angry.
We passed some hand signals to each other, Tresia went to have her look at what Doven was superimposing over our ship, then she came back and I went to look again. In part because I felt it was better to face my fear, and now that the Pillar were technically in our possession and we couldn’t go back to the ship, I was afraid
As I watched the real Diamante Cruiser move into our part of space, it occurred to me that Willy was rarely this overtly anti helping any race that was a Diamante target. And Roy knew me very well, and therefore wasn’t likely to make me angry unintentionally, especially over saving innocent lives. Meaning they’d made me angry on purpose, and probably Tresia, too, so that we’d do exactly what we had.
So maybe Roy and Willy had wanted us to save these Pillar as much as I had. Which raised a very key question – why had Willy been openly against this recuse and why had Roy resisted it at all?
This was an unsettling question, because Tresia, Dr. Wufren, and I had no chance if the Diamante personnel chose to attack. We were tethered to the Hummingbird, meaning that if Roy flew off, let alone went to warp, we were dead. If they cut our lines to be able to take off without dragging us along, we were also dead. And Kyle was obviously working the airlock, meaning he was probably in a spacesuit and therefore in a position to cut us all free. For all I knew, Willy was in a suit, too, and also ready to cut us loose.
Why I was even thinking this I couldn’t say. I trusted Roy, and everyone else on the Hummingbird, with more than my life – I trusted them with everything I was, with the truth of all that I was. We all did. And Roy had as much to lose as the rest of us. More, really. So, why was he resistant, or pretending to be resistant, to save these Pillar and why was I suddenly suspicious of his motives?
Roy was speaking. “Diamante Ship Thirty-three-fifteen.” Presumably he was replying to the real Diamante communications officer, and hopefully Ciarissa was feeding him the correct information needed.
Back to worrying. Why hadn’t Doven come up with this plan sooner? Why hadn’t any of us? Horror and grief could be answers, but were they? Was someone affecting us? Ciarissa certainly had the telepathic skill to do so. But, as with the others, why would she? And why was I no longer trusting her, when we’d just gone through one of the most bonding experiences we could have when we’d been on Polliworld?
Roy shared something innocuous with whoever he was chatting with. Then onto the things that could mean we were dead. “Team searching for survivors. Yes, to destroy them. No, found none.”
I was glad we hadn’t gotten done faster now. The debris we were in hid the Birthing Sac unless you were looking at it up close, as we’d done. And even if they were using telesights to observe us, they wouldn’t see us inside here.
They’d just see our tethers. Going inside somewhere interesting.
Roy and whoever were engaging in more meaningless spacer-typical chatter. More time for me to worry.
How would we get the Pillar somewhere safe? Was Roy right, and would us going to even the shortest warp kill them as surely as the Diamante Families had killed the rest of their kin? Was Willy right? Was a bug’s life, even a sentient bug, even a dozen of them, worth more than ours? And even if they survived the warp jump, what? Were we going to dump them off somewhere? Where in the galaxy would they be safe? And who knew how to raise Pillar young anyway?
Who would protect them? Who would love them?
And suddenly, I realized why the Diamante Families wanted this race destroyed.
Of course, that knowledge didn’t make waiting easier. Only, in a way, it did. Because I now knew why I was afraid, and I was able to counter it. By reliving my memories, starting from the first time I’d met Roy, up through the last couple of jobs we’d just done. I wondered if Tresia and Dr. Wufren were doing the same, and figured they probably were.
This took some time, but we certainly had it – the cruiser wasn’t going anywhere fast. However, they also weren’t sending out scout ships or blasting the Hummingbird from the sky, so I chose to believe things were going well. I just hoped the cruiser didn’t have any kind of telepath on board, though they were required, by their own laws, to advise any other ship, Diamante or otherwise, if they had an Espen working on their ship. One of the many Diamante laws we tended to ignore but, for whatever reason, they usually didn’t.
Finally Roy said, “Roger that, over and out.” The cruiser took off slowly, not going to warp, but not searching around, either.
The three of us remained quiet – just because the cruiser appeared to be leaving didn’t mean it wasn’t some kind of a trap
or trick. But it continued on until I couldn’t see it anymore.
“All clear,” Ciarissa said in our minds. “Doven will keep the illusion in place, just in case. Advise when you are unable to navigate properly and only then will he remove it.”
“They just went to warp,” Roy said. “Get out of there and back into the ship immediately. Faster if you can manage it.”
Tresia flipped the laser cutter up and cut away the part of the chamber that we’d crawled through. This took longer than any of us would have liked, but she had to be careful not to cut our tethers or get them caught up in the debris, and Dr. Wufren and I had to keep a hold of the Birthing Sac with the young in it.
“Last piece is away,” Tresia said as she once again hooked the laser cutter over her arm. “Shall we return?” she asked me and Dr. Wufren.
“Why wouldn’t you?” Roy asked, sounding testy.
“Because we’ve had an emotional time out here,” I replied. I had to figure the others had been treated to the same emotional stress that I had, because it made more sense that they would than not.
Tresia and Dr. Wufren both turned to me. “You, too?” the Doctor asked me. Always nice to be right.
“Yes. Tresia?”
“Oh, yes. Ciarissa, did you pick up anything from any of us?”
“No,” Ciarissa replied. “You three were all amazingly quiet, both audibly and telepathically.”
“Yeah, well, as to that, we have a situation.” Which we’ll handle, I thought to myself. And we’ll handle it in such a way that our new charges will not be harmed or deserted. “Ciarissa, did you hear what I just thought?”
“No, DeeDee, I did not, but I was not monitoring, either. I am…rather tired.”
“I’m sure. The rest of you on the ship, were any of you worried about things?”
“Well, yeah,” Kyle said, sounding confused. “You three were outside of the ship when we needed to run. Doven and Ciarissa were extending their powers for a long period of time and big bro was faking it like he’d spent his life in a Diamante uniform. Of course we were worried.” The others chimed in with similar concerns.
“We were here, with them,” Dr. Wufren said. “We three risked all to get them. That’s why they focused on us.”
“Plus they, like we, were hiding,” Tresia pointed out.
“Who are you talking about?” Roy asked.
“Tell you once we’re all on board. We have a dozen Pillar young, by the way. While the three of us are maneuvering back into the bosom of our home, the rest of you try to come up with how we protect them at warp speed. Even if it’s a crazy idea, we’re going to want to hear it when we’re back.”
“We will need to go into the cargo hold,” Tresia added. “The section of Birthing Sac we have is too large to go through the regular hatch.”
“Of course it is,” Roy muttered.
“I’ll handle it, bro,” Kyle said.
“I’ll help,” Bullfrog said. “Getting into my suit now.”
Getting back to the ship wasn’t as hard as I’d been worried it would be – we ensured we had firm holds on the Birthing Sac, Doven altered his illusion so that we could see the real cargo hold, we aimed for the belly of the ship, pushed off at the same time, and floated towards our goal.
There were a few pieces of debris floating in our way, but Dr. Wufren managed to shove them away telekinetically, and we avoided minor unpleasant encounters on the way back.
We’d aimed well, and the hold door opened as we got close. Bullfrog and Kyle were tethered to the inside of the ship and they shoved off to catch us. Once they had holds on the Sac, Willy mechanically rewound their tethers and pulled them and our precious cargo back into the ship.
The three of us who’d gone out of the airlock now pulled ourselves back via our tethers, reached the ladder, unclipped, and went back inside. I went last, and as the airlock door closed behind me I heard a group sigh of relief on the com.
“Get out of the suits and to stations as fast as you can,” Roy said. “We can’t warp out of here, so I want to leave as soon as possible.”
“I have an idea,” Kyle said as he flooded the airlock with oxygen and let the three of us fully back into the ship.
“And what is that?” Roy asked, patience clearly forced.
“Polliskins inside of space suits,” Kyle said, as he helped us get our spacesuits off. “If we can get the babies into Polliskins, then into a space suit, they can probably manage warp. We could even try putting them just into the Polliskin helmets.”
“And you think, in the entire history of the Pillar race, that not one of them ever thought of that?” Roy asked.
Bullfrog joined us. “Maybe not, Roy. It would be a rare Polliwog who would have been interested in them prior to the Purge. And I don’t think they were frequent visitors to Polliworld.”
“They look like your people’s idea of food,” I pointed out. “I’d be willing to bet that it would have to have been a rare Pillar who wanted to risk getting eaten just to visit somewhere new.”
“We must ensure these survive,” Tresia said.
Dr. Wufren nodded. “However, Kyle’s idea is sound. And one that, frankly, only someone who traveled with a Polliwog and visited Polliworld regularly would think of.”
“I like the kid’s idea, but I have a question – how will we get them into the suits without crushing them?” Willy asked. “Because the helmet idea won’t work.”
“We’ll have them stay in Round Form,” I answered. “I have a plan as well. Besides, they’re willing to take the risk. Now that they know for sure that we’re trying to save them, that is.”
There was silence on the com, and the expressions on Kyle, Willy, and Bullfrog’s faces shared that they felt I’d finally gone around the comets once too many times. Tresia and Dr. Wufren, on the other hand, looked unsurprised and also determined.
“Group meeting, in the hold,” Dr. Wufren said. “DeeDee, Tresia, and I have something to tell the rest of you.”
“We will complete two tasks at the same time,” Tresia added, “and get our young survivors set up to survive their rescue.”
The six of us gathered all of our Polliskins and met up with Roy, Doven, and Ciarissa in the cargo hold. Roy looked worried and unhappy. “Tell me again why we’re not trying to get out of here and why my entire crew is being insubordinate?”
“It was a test,” I said, as I looked at the Pillar still sleeping in their Sacs. The last ones from this colony. “They wanted to be sure they could trust us.”
“They who?” Willy asked.
“The Pillar. These Pillar. I know why the Diamante Families destroyed Pilla and why they want to kill every last Pillar left.”
Ciarissa cocked her head. Her blonde hair floated around her – our gravity generators were working, this was just the way Ciarissa’s hair was most of the time. I didn’t know enough Espens to know if this was common or not with their telepaths. For all I knew, her hair floated because she was near a telekinetic, or Dr. Wufren used her hair for practice. It was one of those questions I’d never felt comfortable asking.
“They’re telepathic,” she said softly. Tresia, Dr. Wufren, and I nodded. “But not individually and not when they’re awake. It only happens when they’re young and in these chambers. The Birthing Sacs…amplify their talents.”
“So does proximity to each other.”
Roy shook his head. “How could that be and no one knew about it?”
“And why can’t we hear them –” Kyle stopped speaking abruptly. “Oh.”
“They’re talking to you?” Tresia asked him.
He nodded. “Kind of. Not like Ciarissa does. It’s more like…I’m feeling what they want me to.”
“Yes, that’s what it was like for me,” Tresia said.
“Me, too.”
“I as well, but, Roy to answer your question, why share a power that your young possess?” Dr. Wufren asked. “Someone realized it, and the moment they did…”
&nbs
p; “They were slaughtered,” I finished. “I assume the young Pillars who were in Birthing Sacs at the time were the ones who sounded the alarm to leave Pilla in the first place.”
Ciarissa nodded. “There were some…Espens who warned Pilla of the danger, but by the time that warning came, they were already making preparations to leave their planet.”
There was an Espen underground set up across the galaxy – I’d learned that during our last mission. That they’d warned Pilla made sense. That Pilla had already known should have raised some questions, though.
“If Espens knew the Pillar were aware of the danger, how is it that this telepathic talent was not known by the entire galaxy?” Doven asked.
Ciarissa shook her head. “Espen’s leaders were firmly on the path of neutrality. The assumption, encouraged by Pillar leadership, by the way, was that they’d been warned by someone else.”
“They had been.” I pointed to the Birthing Sac. “By their children. And I’m sure they lied because they knew why the Diamante Families wanted to destroy them.”
“But how did the Diamante families figure it out?” Kyle asked. “If an Espen couldn’t tell the babies were telepathic, how did a Diamante manage it?”
“Probably the same way we did,” Tresia said. “The Diamante Families visited all the worlds first, before they destroyed them. Perhaps one or more of them felt emotionally manipulated, made the same logical leaps that DeeDee, Fren, and I did, and then reported back.”
“By the time they were being warned, they would have had their children remain…hidden,” Ciarissa added.
“But why would they have shown their power to anyone even remotely connected to the Diamante Families?” Doven asked.
I shrugged. “They were children. Children are curious. Or maybe they were afraid. Or excited. It doesn’t matter why – it matters that there is a reason, a real reason, why the Diamante Families are trying to destroy this race.”
