Arach

by C. M. Simpson

  “Tens, can you check the ship is clean of any current arach presence?”

  “Done.”

  And I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

  “Mack,” I said, “Can you liaise with Tek and the head of the bodyguards to pinpoint the most likely entry points, any arach boarders might take?”

  “Done,” and, if I wasn’t imagining it, the man might actually be happy with my idea.

  “Don’t let it go to your head.”

  And I couldn’t help smiling. I had just managed to impress Mack—and that wasn’t an easy thing to do. Especially with my track record. Now, what else was there I needed to do to make sure the ship was secure?

  Oh, right. Big-ass arach cruiser coming in might need to be scanned.

  “Askavor?”

  “You tweaked the web?”

  His answer threw me for a moment, and then I realized it must be a weaver colloquialism. I figured it might mean the same as ‘you rang?’ or ‘you called’. Either way, I got it.

  “Can you operate the ship’s scanning array?”

  “Yes.”

  “I need everything you can get about that ship.”

  “You’re letting a spider into my scanning array?” Tens was horrified.

  “Weaver!” I snapped, “And, yes, I’m letting him into Mack’s scanning array. You’re busy, and I need the data before you’ll be done.”

  “Well, what about Rohan?”

  “I have plans for him, too,” I said, and felt Rohan start paying attention.

  Tens grumbled, and went back to what I’d set him to doing. He also put a copy of the ship’s schematics on the forward view-screen, and there was a general shuffling and rustling of wings as the other vespis in the room moved to get a better look.

  Just as I was at a loss to work out what to do, next, Tens pinged my implant—which was unusually civilized of him. Before I could get to wondering what he wanted, he told me.

  “Odyssey on the line,” and I heard him telling the Odyssey contact to go ahead.

  “About time,” snapped a familiar voice, and my heart sank.

  Seriously? Delight? Of all the Odyssey agents we could possibly have drawn, how in all the stars had we managed to draw her, again? Was she following us, or something?

  “Or something, and it’s nice to see you, too,” Delight said, and I felt her forge a link to my implant that bypassed the need to use the ship’s comms system.

  Looked like we were back to the old days.

  “We never left ’em,” Delight told me, and I sighed.

  “What do you want?”

  “My what a giant arach queen ship you have heading in-system,” Delight snarked. “We were thinking of coming to join the party, but you look like you have everything well in hand.”

  Honestly, the girl had a worse attitude than I did—and to think she used to be my boss.

  “You caught a lucky break,” Delight interrupted. “I’d have been your judge, jury and executioner if I could have had my way.”

  I knew that, didn’t much appreciate being reminded of it.

  “You coming or not?”

  It was the best I could manage. What I really wanted to say was a lot less polite.

  “We’re coming. They’ll try to board you, again, but I see you’re addressing that problem… And what is that?” she asked, pulling a picture of the queen’s bodyguard out of the memory recordings in my implant.

  She didn’t wait for a response, though, just kept pulling images of the vespis from my head. I knew she was creating a file, and wondered if she’d bothered working out the name of the planet we were orbiting.

  “The planet?” she asked. “What’s that go to do with… oh.”

  It was nice to know I’d managed to confound her.

  “Yeah, laugh it up shit-for-brains…” but she sounded distracted, and I got the impression she had turned away from the comms console and was conversing with one of the crew. “K’Kavor? What would the arach want here?”

  I was guessing that question wasn’t addressed to me, so I waited. It didn’t take long for Delight to come back on the line. When she did, she came straight to the point.

  “How far have you got with your investigation?”

  “We had a likely location for the arach infiltration team, but it’s probably empty, now.”

  “What do you mean ‘empty’?”

  “I mean they probably saw us on-way, and bugged out of wherever they were using as a base, when we changed course to rescue a settlement being attacked by an arach incursionary force.”

  “When you saw the opportunity to steal a drop-ship, you mean?”

  “No. When she was ordered to intervene to help me save my people.” The queen’s voice cut like a knife through the communications, and I felt Delight’s attention sharpen.

  “Who is this?” she asked.

  “I am Queen…” and I could not follow the pattern of sound the queen used to represent her name. “You may call me Queen Tekravzary, or your Majesty, whichever is easier.”

  And if that wasn’t enough to make Delight choke on her coffee, then I didn’t know what would. I heard the agent sputter, and then recover.

  “And how, exactly, are you on this line?”

  I could feel the queen’s amusement, but was pretty sure it wouldn’t translate over the comm link. Given how well Delight handled surprises, that was probably all for the best. The queen’s answer would be disconcerting enough.

  “We are psi. I am in Cutter’s head, so I may speak with you.”

  The way she said it made it sound like I’d been complicit in planning this ambush. I rolled my eyes. I never could stand politics of state! I could, however, stand to listen to the queen schooling Delight on the proper etiquette of calling a world’s leader and alerting them to the danger now approaching their planet.

  “We were hoping to keep Odyssey’s arrival on-planet, a secret,” Delight told her.

  The queen was firm.

  “Unfortunately, my people need to know they are not alone—and that includes my human allies.”

  “Ah, Cutter?” Tens said, just before Delight responded to a voice barely heard in the background of her link.

  “What?”

  “There’s another ship coming in. Looks like a battle cruiser.”

  “Tell me it’s not arach.”

  “No can do, kiddo. That thing is definitely arach. About the only thing I can say with any sort of surety is that. It could be a transport.”

  “In which case, it will be heavily armed and armored,” the vespis queen said. “They protect their cargoes like a pirate guards his treasure. A battle cruiser would be preferable; it has less armor.”

  “I have called for back-up,” Delight said. “Your Majesty, do you know what tactics they might use?”

  “They will seek to address the insult we have handed them by first taking back this ship, and then killing us to avenge their kinsmen, and then they will take the station and anything else in-system.”

  “What ships do you have?”

  “None, but there is a freighter docked,” the queen said, and I remembered the conversation where she had been refused the loan of the station shuttles. “The colony will not release it until its cargo has been transferred, and then they will not want to release it, until the colony’s own shipments are loaded. I can order it freed from the dock.”

  “No,” Delight said. “The arach will hunt it down, and a running ship is harder to get back than one in dock. Can you ask the station to lock everything down? Also, if the shuttles are on-station, get them planetside. The harder it is for the arach to transition between the two, the better. If there are no shuttles to commandeer, they will have to use their own, or coerce those planetside to provide them. I trust you can ensure that does not happen?”

  “I can ask my people to refuse them; the humans may have to be… convinced.”

  �
�I am looking at your history, now, and I understand. Odyssey will stand by your decision.”

  “Let us hope it does not come to that,” the queen replied.

  Delight, when she answered, was surprisingly somber.

  “We will teleport aboard as soon as we are in range. Our experience with the arach shows they do not yet have that capability. Is this your experience?”

  “I have never seen arach use teleportation,” the queen said.

  “Have you seen it used?”

  I thought briefly about when the Shady was boarded, but they paid it no attention.

  “Only in movies, and that only once. The humans have a fondness for classic science fiction. Is your teleport similar?”

  “We appear in a column or ball of silver light,” Delight replied. “Please make sure your people are aware. We do not wish to be killed by those we’ve come to help.”

  “It shall be so,” the queen said. “I will ask the humans here to show us what a teleported being looks like on arrival. They will share their memories, and we will hopefully be able to avoid any unfortunate mishaps.”

  “Thank you, your Majesty. And, speaking of unfortunate mishaps, I see an arach in the control room.”

  I heard Askavor hiss in displeasure, and then listened as his voice cut into the communications line.

  “We are not arach. We are the weavers. Our home is K’Kavor. No other. And we will fight to prevent it becoming a residence for abominations such as those approaching our world, now.”

  Delight snorted, managing to convey pure disbelief.

  “Now, tell me why we would accept the world of a spider?”

  “Because weavers are as much prey in an arach incursion as the vespis or humans, are. Arach spare no-one, enslaving and devouring all they can reach. Weavers become nothing more than a way to breed a more versatile arach warrior,” Askavor replied.

  “He is one of my people, here as I.T. support,” the queen explained. “Cutter can verify how valuable he has proven in defeating the arach code infecting Mack’s ship, and he is on loan from his clan. Do not harm him.”

  I heard Delight hesitate, going off-line to consult in muffled tones with members of her team. When she came back, she was able to give her answer.

  “If you can keep him in the control room, and every other spider out of it, then I can guarantee his safety. If he wanders, or the arach are on the bridge when we arrive, I will not be able to guarantee his life.”

  “We will do our best,” the queen said, and I knew I’d just received another instruction.

  “I can hunt for remnants of arach software from here just as well as anywhere else,” Askavor added. “I will speak with Tens.”

  “Fine.” Tens did not sound impressed.

  I left them to it, and then Askavor gave an agitated chatter.

  “They have launched the first wave of shuttles.”

  “Shuttles?” I asked.

  “A half dozen,” Askavor confirmed.

  “First wave?” Delight.

  “The first wave is tasked with boarding, as the queen’s ship comes into range to force dock. The challenge is for them to make three trips between their target and the queen’s ship before it starts docking maneuvers.”

  “You are shitting me,” Delight said. “How long?”

  As I listened to Askavor’s answer, I wondered how he knew the arach’s ship-to ship routine so well, and knew it was tangled somewhere in the same past in which he had learned arach coding.

  “Not now,” the spider said, and I got the impression that he would be just as happy if it was not ever, but that he might tell me at a later time… perhaps—if the circumstances were right. I put that idea out of my head; there were more important issues at hand.

  “Agreed,” Delight added, speaking to me, and then, to the queen. “Your Majesty, I look forward to meeting you to discuss how Odyssey might be of service to your world in the future.”

  “I look forward to it,” the queen replied, and then turned to me. “Thank you, Cutter.”

  With that, she vanished from inside my head, leaving me to farewell Delight.

  “See you soon, kiddo,” Delight said. “Try not to get yourself killed.”

  “Ditto,” I replied.

  Try not to get myself killed? Who said I was going to get killed?

  “She has a point,” Mack told me. “You do keep hurting yourself.”

  I rocked up onto an elbow to dispute that fact, and then fell back, as pain lanced through my chest and down my injured arm. Fuck!

  So, I changed the subject. It was better than watching myself bleed.

  “Whatever, Mack. Let’s get this place locked down, hey? You and the other violent types got a plan?”

  “Violent?” Mack sounded almost offended, and I looked up to see two vespis faces looking down at me from across his console. Their antennae were quirked in a way that suggested they weren’t happy. I didn’t bother trying to explain. It was easier just to move on to something different.

  “Would Rohan be safer here or in one of the dropships?”

  “Drop-ship,” Tens said, pulling himself away from the security scans long enough to answer. “Suited up, and out of sight. He can link into the ship’s systems from there, which might be useful if the arach compromise the bridge.”

  “Done,” I said, and looked at the boy.

  He was already getting to his feet, the dog standing by his side. Both were eyeing the vespis bodyguard with a wariness borne of experience.

  “Your Majesty?” I asked, and she tilted her head towards the boy. “He needs an escort. Who do you suggest?”

  “K’Tina,” the queen replied, and the bodyguard that had been assigned to me looked at the boy and his dog.

  “I will keep them safe,” she said.

  She looked even less impressed than she had before, but I guessed that didn’t matter. As long as she kept the pair of them safe, she could be as unimpressed as she wanted to be. I fixed Rohan with the sternest look I could manage from flat on the floor.

  “Stay safe, and watch her back.”

  The guardian vespis reared back a little, and I read surprise in its posture. Surprise, but not mockery.

  “It means he must protect you as you protect him.” I paused. “Or as best he can. He is only young.”

  “Hey!” There was reproach in Rohan’s voice, but K’Tina gave that rapid-fire buzz of vespis amusement.

  “I understand. I am sure we will protect each other, to the best of our abilities.”

  “That is all I ask.”

  I stopped, suddenly aware of the silence in the control center. Unfortunately, Mack was the only person I could see, and he was sitting with his elbows on his console and his head in his hands. I twisted a little, trying to catch sight of more than him, Tovy, Rohan and K’Tina.

  “What?”

  “You’re awfully bossy for someone who’s not in charge.”

  Not in charge? Since when?

  And Mack started laughing.

  “That was a joke, Cutter. You’re doing okay. Just don’t get too comfortable.”

  Why the hell not?

  “Because that’s my job you’re doing so well.”

  “Thanks.”

  I think. Still, he had a point. I was in charge—and he had put me there—whether he liked it or not. I could either step up, or fall down, and I was damned if I was going to fall.

  “Do you have a plan, yet?” I asked, and a female vespis, whose voice I didn’t recognize, replied.

  “We are ready to go.” Her voice hitched in what might have been amusement, but the tone was gone too fast for me to be sure. “Just give the word.”

  “Word,” I said, so very much not entertained. “Go. I trust you.”

  Mack pushed out of his chair.

  “Where are you going?”

  He came over to stand beside me, and I stared up at him. He looked damned huge from this persp
ective. That drew a smile from him.

  “And you’d best not forget it.”

  “What do you want, Mack?”

  “I’m going to get you into one of the observation seats,” he said, referring to the chairs set in niches at the back of the bridge. “That way if we need to take emergency measures, you can be podded.”

  His words reminded me that the seats in the command section would convert to stasis pods if the ship was breached. I didn’t need a console to do what I was doing, so what he said made perfect sense. I sighed.

  “This is going to hurt, isn’t it?”

  His mouth tightened.

  “I’ll try and keep the pain to a minimum.”

  “Just do it, Mack,” and even to my ears, I sounded tired.

  13—The Defense of the Shady Marie

  The move to the observation seat was less painful than I expected, but it still took me a minute to catch my breath.

  “Tens, we maneuvering, or letting them come to us?”

  “Letting them come. Engineering isn’t back on-line, and Case is stashed.”

  Stashed?

  “Where the arach can’t find her. Along with the navigator. I didn’t want them in their heads.”

  Well, that made sense. I wouldn’t want the arach in their heads, either, given what those two knew.

  “Exactly.”

  “Can we get the rest of the crew in escape pods?”

  I was figuring we could jettison the pods if things got really bad. It would give the arach less hostages, and take them time to retrieve the pods—time Odyssey could use to get close enough to board. Time for their reinforcements to arrive. More chances the crew would have of surviving, if the spiders went into a feeding frenzy.

  “It would slow them down,” Askavor said. “They would gather the pods, and then make a show of each kill to prove their dominance. If you infuriate them enough, they will give all of you to the queen as hosts for her young—which means you would be preserved unharmed for at least a day after she had boarded.”

  I remembered Delight at the end of the Costral mission. Was that what she’d meant when she’d said they were incubating? Delight’s reaction was instantaneous.