"Accord to Lord Ull, we're already dead. I’d rather support someone who will fight to stay alive."
"Are you willing to fight other warriors and the Nesu to do that?"
"I am, Lord Tommy."
"Some of what I might ask you to do, you may not like."
"I understand," Fen said.
Tommy turned to Sisle. "Do you believe him?"
Sisle's answer was slow in coming. "Fen is a good man," she suddenly smiled up at Fen, "as warriors go. I’ve never known him to lie. If he says he'll support you, he will."
"That's enough for me."
Tommy turned to the Nesu behind him. "Do you trust me to do what is right?" he said in the lords' language.
A chorus of "Yes, Master Tommy," answered him.
He reached into his satchel. "Turn around, Fen."
When Fen's collar dropped to the floor, only Tommy and the women, who knew what was coming, remained silent. Fen cried out, and the Nesu gave a grinding whistle.
"The first thing you can do for me, Fen, is to stand up and start calling me Tommy or, if you insist, Master Tommy. The next thing is to tell me whether any of the other warriors might follow you in this."
Before Fen could answer, Ull's voice called from the intercom. "Feral human, are you still there?"
Tommy returned to the command chair. "Yes, Ull, I am still here."
"You continue to defy the council's will," Ull said. "Have we returned to transit?"
"I invite you to return to the bridge and find out for yourself," Tommy said.
He could hear an animal snarl in her voice. "Insolent human, this ship will be cleansed of you once and for all."
Tommy turned from the intercom to the gathered humans. "I think she means to send warriors to remove us from here. I ask you again, are you prepared to fight?"
A ragged chorus of "Yes, Tommy!" echoed through the bridge.
He turned to the Nesu and said in the lords' language, "Lord Ull plans to stop what we are doing. Where do you stand in this?"
The Nesu gazed back and forth at each other, their black and brown muzzles bobbing. Finally, Cauth replied, "I made my choice when I stayed on the bridge. I believe we all did."
"Yes, Master Tommy," the others responded.
He turned to the humans. "Let's get ready."
Getting ready consisted of distributing three of the directed beam controllers and teaching the recipients how to use them. He offered one to Fen, but Fen refused. He preferred to fight in his usual way.
Fifty warriors arrived simultaneously from all the elevators on the deck, with Lito and Patuek leading the charge of ten warriors, batons in hand, from the nearest. Their war cry rang off of the curved roof.
They had traveled five long strides when Fhele stepped forward and raised her arm.
A sharp crack echoed around the room, and Patuek's severed head bounced off the deck, his neck spurting blood toward the dome as his body took two more steps before collapsing.
Sisle raised her arm. Another sharp crack, and Lito became a bloody mess on the deck.
Some of the following warriors slipped in the blood and skidded to their backs. Two jumped over the headless trunks and tried to continue. Their bodies joined those of Lito and Patuek. The remainder halted as if they had run into an invisible wall.
Tommy stepped between Sisle and Fhele. "Lord Ull sent you here to kill me so that everyone on this ship might die together, as the council decreed."
Fen moved next to Tommy. "Master Tommy tells the truth. The Kadiil are attacking us. Lord Ull herself told me to go die with my children. When Tommy continued to resist the Kadiil and the will of the council, they sent you to stop him. If you do as Lord Ull says, you and your children will die today."
One of the warriors exclaimed, "Fen's neck! His collar is gone!"
"The artisans are right!” another voice shouted. “Lord Tommy is the One!”
A few of the warriors fell to their knees. The remainder continued standing, some with set expressions on their faces, while others seemed confused.
One of those kneeling said, "Free us, Lord Tommy."
If I'm ever going to, now is the time to take advantage of all those rumors!
He looked from the warriors to the blood on the floor. That could have been his blood. The smell made his stomach churn. Every one of these men had trained for extreme violence against other human beings. Ull sent them here to kill him, and they might still try. For five hundred years, the threat of the collar had bound them. Could he risk releasing them all?
But I must! Any adult Nesu could pull her cylinder from her pouch, turn the end two clicks, and detonate every armed collar on the ship.
"I can remove your collars, and I will on one of three conditions," Tommy said.
He paused and let the silence stretch for a moment. "Either one of these women or Fen vouches for you, or," he let that sink in for a moment, "you perform some task that I will assign to test your sincerity, or," another moment of silence, "we arrive at Earth. Everyone else will be freed of their collar when we land on Earth. Until then it will stay on your neck.”
The pause was longer this time. “If we do remove your collar, and you make me believe that was a mistake, it will be replaced around your neck."
He turned abruptly away from the warriors. "Fhele, hold the warriors here. Sisle and Fen, I need to talk with you privately."
He led them to the other side of the bridge. "We must disarm all of the collars. One nervous Nesu could kill nine tenths of you."
Even a warrior can be frightened, Tommy thought, seeing the expression crossing Fen's face.
"Sisle, you know the procedure. Show Fen. Get the other women to help. Figure out some way to disarm the collars on warriors and women we don't trust without their knowing it. And hurry. We don't have much time before Ull starts wondering what's happening. And let me know when you're done. One more thing: I hid a few more of those cylinders under the stairs to the bridge sub-deck and under the ladder below the targeting room. Send someone down to get them. I'll have Seth show whomever you send to the targeting room where they are."
When they returned to the warriors, Tommy took a deep breath.
Time to make it happen. Time to try to save all their lives.
"Sisle, you and Fen talk with the women and decide who among these warriors can be trusted without their collar. Lock up the rest of them. Use the trusted group to convert, or lockup," he felt his stomach turn sour even as his face hardened, "or kill the rest of the warriors and warrior women. It would be best if that were done with no further deaths, but I want no more attacks on the bridge. We have work to do."
He looked again at what had been four human beings and clamped down hard on the back of his throat. "Who's responsible for cleaning up dead bodies?" he asked.
# # #
The gravity monitor displayed the outlines of at least one hundred Kadiil ships floating near The People's Fist.
The crew had quit counting after thirty-five. The arrival rate had dropped off, but remained one almost every ten minutes.
Each new blip on the screen fascinated its watchers, who now included all of the guildmasters and master farmers. Tommy had called them all to the bridge, and even those who had worked here before, as journeymen and masters making repairs, were confused by what they were seeing. The others, including the farmers, stood with blank expressions in the back of the crowd.
Tommy hadn't told them why they were here. Before he could do that, he waited for the return of Sisle and Fen from the warrior decks and word that the situation had stabilized.
Ull had called once, and Tommy had gestured everyone to silence. When no one answered, she clicked off. Tommy hoped he had convinced her that the bridge had been cleared as ordered, and she had gone back to waiting for death to strike.
She must think we're in transit. More time for her to have her last swim. This whole situation could have turned out differently if the council had been participating instead of hiding in the
ir ponds. It still might, if even one of the adults steps out of her chamber and decides to kill the warriors before we disarm the collars.
The sound of an elevator arriving sent his hand to the cylinder in his pocket.
Sisle's shout carried above the crowd. "Tommy, it's done!"
The guildmasters parted to allow her through. A pushy warrior woman made them nervous, although she was smaller than most and Tommy had introduced her.
"Everyone's collar is taken care of." She looked in his eyes. "We don't have that threat anymore. And Fen remembered something you missed. Firearms are stored in various places on the ship. Normally, they are only used on-planet. Fen is giving a few to those we trust most," she slapped the holster attached to her belt, "and locking the remainder away from the Council in case they try to retake the ship."
This blunt statement brought a startled gasp from several of the guildmasters.
Tommy turned to the human crowd. "Yes, you heard right. Some of the warrior women, and now some of the warriors, along with a few of the younger Nesu," he gestured at Cauth, Ulsu, San and Suna still sitting at their consoles, "and I have taken over the ship." He waited for the uproar to die down. "We had to. What you are watching on the monitor are Kadiil ships intent on destroying us. The Nesu decided to let them, and I couldn't allow that. Not if I could stop them, and, so far, we have." Though I don't know how we're ever going to leave here.
"We need your help and the help of your artisans and farmers to save the ship and all our lives."
The first Jack's distinctive twang lifted over the murmuring of other voices. "And will we be returning to Earth, Master Tommy?"
"We will be if we can get past the Kadiil!" Tommy shouted.
Jack's triumphant, "We told you he’s the one!" brought instant silence, and then everyone dropped to his knees.
This is getting old. "Everyone on your feet! I need your help, not your obedience. Will you help us?"
A loud cheer followed by a louder "Yes!" reverberated around the bridge.
"Good!” Tommy said. “Come closer. Here's what I need."
They spent the next hour organizing the digging of a passage to the bore containing My Flowing Streams.
The Kadiil will continue to try to destroy the ship, wherever it went and regardless of cost. What knowledge could be so important, and who would be willing to expend so much to stop its spread?
Something or someone in one of those drifting ships could answer my questions.
When the digging was underway, Tommy went to see Fen.
"Did anyone vouch for Leegh's personal guards?" Tommy asked.
"No, we had to lock up all six of them. But each swore he wanted to join us."
"I may need Leegh's help. No, I'm sure I will. Pick two of her guards who are the least risk. Tell them we'll remove their collars if they bring Leegh, by force if necessary, to the bridge."
Fen laughed. "That should terrify them. Putting your hands on a lord merits an immediate death sentence, even if she’s gone crazy."
"Not anymore," Tommy said. "And that brings up an important issue: Are you guarding the entrances to the Nesu chambers? Can you keep the Nesu under control while we try to solve this?"
"We are guarding every door, but lifelong discipline will be difficult to overcome."
"Just do your best," Tommy said.
# # #
Sweat poured from the chalk white faces of the two warriors supporting Leegh. At the sight of the four Nesu still on the bridge, one of them seemed ready to turn and run. Something had soaked the other's tunic with more than sweat. Sure, someone would have had to pull Leegh out of the water. He would be the bravest, wouldn't he?
Tommy pulled an extra chair up to the gravity monitor. "Put her here, then turn around. You've done your part."
Leegh slumped in her chair, and the warriors’ collars hit the floor, one after the other.
With the warriors gone, Tommy pulled up another chair and held Leegh's head toward the monitor. He waited for another wormhole signature followed by those of a Kadiil ship and black hole initiation. Leegh's neck muscles tensed, then relaxed when the black hole signature disappeared.
"Leegh, you do recognize what you are seeing! Those other Kadiil ships on the monitor arrived the same way. They are all dead!"
She jerked her head from Tommy's hands and leaned toward the monitor. "Dead? You have found some way to defeat the Kadiil?" She looked back toward Tommy and pulled herself more erect in the chair. "How?"
"In a way, yes, but not really. If you will help me, maybe we can find a way. We have a chance to, anyway."
She sat up even straighter. "Tell me!"
As her despair lifted, Leegh reacted to his telling her he had taken over the ship by flexing her claws and giving a low whistle.
"What do you mean to do with us?” she asked. “Are you holding The People hostage for my help?"
"I am holding The People hostage because the council decided to commit mass suicide. I could not allow that. What do I mean to do? If we get out of this alive, we will take The People anywhere they want to go, but without their human slaves. Otherwise, they are free to live in their lakes and ponds until we all die together, which is what your council wanted in the first place."
"We will be able to leave this place with our lives only if we defeat the Kadiil,” Leegh said. “You believed before that was impossible. What has changed your mind?"
"I have a hope, not certainty," Tommy said. "The hope is that an examination of one of those dead ships will give us the information we need to fight them."
Tommy stood abruptly from his chair.
"Ull would have had me lie in my bunk until the end came. I refuse." He leaned toward Leegh and said, "Leegh, I have seen your work. Your hobby, you call it. Your grasp of mathematics and physics will make this possible, if anything will. I need your help. The People need your help."
"What of the small dimensional tunnels we detected inside the Kadiil ships?" Leegh asked. "Whatever you do will be reported somewhere. Whatever weapon you create, they will counter."
"Except for the one in our drive, the dimensional tunnels are gone," Tommy said. "They disappear in the Kadiil ships when they die."
Leegh's gaze went from Tommy to the monitor and back again. "No one has ever seen the inside of a Kadiil ship," she mused. "No one has ever seen a Kadiil. Perhaps we do have a chance if we can get inside one of those ships. A better chance than anyone has ever had before, anyway."
She stood fully erect beside Tommy, her tail twitching straight behind her. "Yes, I will help you. What is your plan?"
He glanced at her short arms. "The People have never heard of baseball, have they?"
Leegh and Ull
Leegh stepped past the guard at Ull's door and entered without ringing the entry chimes.
"Ull, I want to speak with you," she called.
She stood in the entryway, searching for movement or some other sign of Ull.
The waterfall's muted roar drowned other sounds, and a wispy fog hung over the entire pond making it impossible to see the surface. The heavy odor of musk filled the humid air.
She has a male in here. For years she avoids mating, and now, when she thinks she is near death, she selects a male.
"Ull, we need to talk!" she called again.
I can wait, she thought, as she squatted by the door. Ull may be in the middle of something.
Ull's head surfaced at the edge of the pond in front of her.
"Why are you here?" Ull asked.
"We could talk better in your pool. May I join you?"
Ull hesitated. "If you must."
Leegh slid into the water, using her waving tail to hold her erect but otherwise remaining motionless. "The council was wrong," she said. "You were wrong."
Ull turned in the water to look out the still open door. The guards she saw were those keeping her imprisoned. "You joined him!" she screeched, advancing toward Leegh. "You joined the feral human in stealing our ship!"
/> Leegh hastily backed away, her tail thrashing under her. "Why does that matter to you? You and the council would have made us all dust and gravel. Tommy offers hope, at least."
Ull settled back into the water. "He offered hope before, and we face certain death because of it. I ask again, why are you here?"
"Our death is not as certain as you think. Tommy took the ship back to the nova, and the Kadiil ships that try to follow are dying as they arrive."
Ull took a moment to consider. "And when our food is exhausted, what then? We will still die."
"That is what I thought, too, and my mind was filled with despair. I know that now." She leaned forward, her black eyes fixed on Ull. "Not to fight back is irrational. We are no better than the fish in our ponds if we accept our destruction as inevitable.
"You asked why I am here. I am here to ask you to join us. Tommy has a plan for capturing one of the Kadiil ships. It may contain the solution we seek. If you help us, others of the People would also. We have only a partial bridge crew, and only I have command experience. Your help would be invaluable."
"Why would Tommy trust me? Why should I trust him? Will he return our ship to us?"
"No, he says he will not. He will not allow his fellow humans to return to slavery. But he will give us our lives if he can, anywhere we want to go."
"Why would you agree," Ull asked. "Without this ship, we are nothing."
"With this ship, we were nothing," Leegh responded. "With all of our ships, we were nothing. Our ponds dry, and we prey on each other, scavenging the components we need to stay alive. With no world to return to, were we better than the fog hanging above this pond? The first breeze will blow us away.”
"The drive in this ship draws the Kadiil. If we leave the ship, perhaps we can make a new start."
Ull swam to the pond's far edge. As she climbed out she called over her shoulder, "The feral human and I made a bargain before. I will not bargain with him again."
Chapter Twenty: The Kadiil
For three weeks, artisans in space suits tunneled to the bore containing My Flowing Streams by setting explosive charges and carrying out debris. The effort continued around the clock, only stopping briefly when one artisan was killed by a sharp crystal flung loose from the rock face.
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