Arach

by C. M. Simpson

  I pushed away the nightmare thought that we had no idea what we were doing, that the vespis couldn’t tell which human treatments were safe for use on her species or not, and that we might be killing her with kindness, instead of saving her. For some reason, that made her laugh even harder.

  “I die without help, when it is there, or I die from trying,” she said, when the buzzing jerked to a stop. “Either way I die, and bring my queen grief. It is better to try, than to do that without a fight.”

  She made it to her feet when the queen arrived, and I caught the upwards quirk of antennae as the other vespis expressed surprise.

  “What did you do?” the queen demanded, turning to the Odyssey agent, and me, and I didn’t know if she was relieved, pleased, or incredibly angry.

  The agent explained, and the queen shamelessly dipped into her head to pull the extra information she needed.

  “Oh.”

  She was quiet for a moment, and then she very carefully peeled the skin-seal back and handed it to the agent.

  “A good substitute,” she said, “but no replacement for this…” and she reached into a cavity on her thorax and pulled a sticky waxy-looking substance out of it. This, she smeared on T’Kit’s wound, nipping the broken edges of chitin together in her powerful mandibles. When she was done, she brushed an antenna over the closed injury.

  “Please put more of your sealant here. It will aid the healing.”

  Surprise touched the agent’s expression, but she obeyed, carefully smoothing another layer of the skin-seal over the queen’s handiwork. I saw her look at T’Kit’s wound, and pause, frowning. When she spoke, it was with hesitance.

  “If it’s okay, we could analyze that… stuff you gave her, and see if the lab could synthesize it.”

  Around us, the vespis reared back slightly, and I knew she’d offended them. The agent picked up on it, and raised her hands.

  “I’m sorry. I meant no offence. I just thought if we could synthesize it, then anyone working with vespis could carry some with them, and use it as a sort of vespis first aid.”

  The queen raised a foreleg, stilling the agitated chattering rising from her two closest bodyguards.

  “Tell me of this first aid.”

  And the agent did.

  “And this synthesis?”

  “Well, it might not produce something as good as the original,” and, here, the vespis grew less agitated, “but it might mean more of your warriors survive on the battlefield.”

  What battlefield? I wondered, and the queen favored me with a quickly tilted glance.

  “My people will take to the stars to find allies,” she said. “We will have Odyssey and your planetary Federation, Council, or whatever it is to guide us. The arach are coming, and the battlefields will be many.”

  And may the Stars help us all, I thought, before I could stop myself.

  Seven sets of antennae waved towards me, and I buried my head in my hands. That had not come out the way I wanted.

  “I am sorry.”

  “You have a very undisciplined mind,” the queen scolded. “Are you able to express what you meant?”

  I was about to try, when Mack and Tens intervened, from wherever they were.

  “Shut it, Cutter.”

  I shut my mouth, and I shrugged.

  “I’m sorry, your Majesty.”

  “Never mind, Cutter.” She surveyed the room around her, and turned to her guards. “Help these people.”

  She looked back at the Odyssey operative.

  “Call your hive. Tell them we need their assistance. I will return to the control center to negotiate terms. Cutter, T’Kit, come with me.”

  The walk to the control center was short and uneventful. Mack and Tens were waiting, and I realized the bodyguards assigned to them had accompanied the queen to the conference hall. I wondered if the freighter had been cleared, yet, and Mack paled.

  “Odyssey cleared it,” he told me, and I caught a fleeting glimpse of human husks tangled in webs strung throughout the ship. “There were no survivors.”

  I stopped, and closed my eyes. No survivors. I hadn’t known anyone on board the ship, but that…

  “We will compensate the families of those who died,” the queen said, “and we have asked for purchase options. Odyssey will assist us in crewing the ship, and train our personnel. The humans of K’Kavor are in agreeance.”

  I went to stand with Mack, and we watched as the queen negotiated a contract for Odyssey assistance, and Tens guided their cruiser in to dock. Their support team arrived not long after, taking over station operations in very short order.

  “There will be a battle cruiser arriving in the next four hours, and two corvettes by the end of the week,” the lieutenant said, addressing the queen. “Don’t worry, your Majesty. We’ll have your orbital up and running in two days, and your solar system secured in a fortnight… at least, until the next attempt is made.”

  Tekravzary had shifted to her human form, and two of her bodyguards had mirrored her; the remaining four remained as vespis, arrayed in pairs on either side. The queen inclined her head, and indicated Mack with a wave of her hand.

  “Liaise with the captain. His ship is our ship, and it is in need of repairs.”

  His ship was her ship? Well, that was news to me, and, judging by the suddenly blank expression on Mack’s face it was news to him, too. I wondered if the queen was reading our confusion, and when she would deign to explain.

  “Check the contract.”

  And Mack went rigid.

  “Son…” he began, and shut his mouth with a snap.

  Tens laid a hand on his shoulder, and I just stood very, very still, remembering the queen’s words aboard the ship. No wonder she’d ordered Rohan to fly the shuttle without clearance. She owned the ship… had contracted Mack’s services. Was that like taking on another hive?

  Did contracting another queen, mean you contracted all the resources of the hive and treated them like your own?

  “Yes,” the queen said, and I stared at her.

  Yes?

  “Yes,” she said, and T’Kit sidled over to me, and brushed my cheek with an antenna.

  Mack groaned, but I knew what he wanted to say. He wanted to say ‘hands off my crew’—and he’d just signed something that said he couldn’t… and he wouldn’t break that contract unless the queen did something to harm us. I looked from him to Tekravzary.

  She wouldn’t, would she?

  “Only to save both hives,” she replied, and some of the tension went out of Mack’s shoulders.

  It made me feel a little better, but still left me with one question. When Mack left the control room to see to the needs of the Shady Marie did I stay, or go with him?

  “You have been assigned to my guards,” the queen said, and Mack glanced sharply towards her.

  She raised an antenna at him.

  “Check the contract, captain. You will find it is not so bad. For instance, I will be housing your crew on-planet for the duration of the repairs. They will work alongside Odyssey to develop the training my people need if they are to go into space. They will assist the humans on K’Kavor to understand how important it is that our two peoples integrate.”

  “They will?”

  “It is in the contract.”

  I noticed that several of the Odyssey operators were smirking, and wondered if their contract held the same clauses. The queen glanced over at the Odyssey lieutenant.

  “Odzee has dealt with the vespis, before. Their contract is a little less broad-reaching.”

  She sounded almost miffed, but her mental tones also held respect.

  “I’m going to murder Delight,” Mack muttered, and the queen smiled.

  “That would also be in breach, captain. Now, if you would take yourself and Tens to the repair dock, to ensure we have covered all that needs doing, I will have T’Kit accompany Cutter to collect the equipment and belongings she needs
for a stay with my guards.”

  Mack’s lips tightened, and the glance he shot me was almost angry. Like his stupidity had been my fault! That earned me a brief glare, before he returned his attention to the queen. His voice was tight, when he replied.

  “As your Majesty wishes.”

  He turned, and led the way from the orbital’s control center, Tens by his side. T’Kit and I followed, the bodyguard making a short bow to her queen as she departed. I copied the movement, before I left, and the queen inclined her head in return.

  If I hadn’t known any better, I’d have said she was pleased.

  19—New Ventures and Alliances

  The queen might have been pleased, but Mack was not. When he got to the Marie, he and Tens walked, with the head of the orbital’s repair dock, through the damaged ship. I cast a look at T’Kit and wondered if she would let me walk with them, given that the ship, the hive, was my home, as well.

  She considered that, with a tilt of her head, and I figured she must be talking with the queen. After a minute, she looked down at me.

  “My queen says you may. She is curious, too, to see the damage that was done in the name of keeping her world safe.”

  “Thank you,” seemed the safest response, and I followed after Mack.

  I’ll give him this: he glanced, once, at the vespis bodyguard and at me, and then turned his attention back to the repair-dock foreman. He might not be happy with the queen’s representative tagging along for the ride, but he seemed happy enough with me shadowing his footsteps. That was kinda nice.

  None of us were happy with the foreman’s verdict when he got a good look at what the arach had done to the ship’s docking bay.

  “We don’t have the equipment for that,” he said. “Best we could do is patch it over, and send you four systems in.”

  “We wouldn’t make the jump.”

  “You might.”

  “The first one, maybe. What’s in the next system over?”

  “Not a lot. Mining colony, four gates, GalPol monitoring station…”

  Four gates. I felt alarm shimmer across me. Four…

  “Where to?” Mack wanted to know.

  “What?”

  “Where do the four gates lead to?”

  The foreman shrugged.

  “Not sure,” he said. “It’s not really my area of expertise.”

  “I’ll pass that to Odyssey,” Tens said. “They need to know.”

  They needed to know, all right. Delight was on the line minutes later.

  “We need to see you and the queen on board, now.”

  I half expected to be wrapped in silver and dragged right over, but it didn’t happen.

  “You’re under a vespis contract,” Delight said. “There are protocols we have to follow. We’ll send an invitation and a pinnace.”

  My, my, weren’t we civilized?

  She was as good as her word, because, in less than a minute, Tekravzary was in my head, and ordering me and T’Kit back to the control room.

  “You can collect your gear, later,” she said.

  It was scant consolation, when Mack came to a sudden halt in front of us, and walked back to stand before T’Kit.

  “Your queen has ordered our return,” he said, and the vespis inclined her head.

  “I am aware.”

  She said no more, but led the way from the docks, leaving the foreman standing with a look on his face that said he was hearing unexpected voices in his head, and was having trouble adjusting.

  I’d just bet he was. He followed after.

  Part way back, we took a different corridor, and ended up in a conference room like the one we’d cleared of arach, only smaller. It might have set me on edge, except that it was well-lit and there wasn’t a single arach in sight.

  There was one spider, though—Askavor—and beside him stood Rohan and the dog. I risked a glance at Mack, and had to keep from laughing. The look on his face was priceless! Something told me he really hadn’t understood the terms of the vespis contract, might even be starting to wonder if he should have taken it.

  “No choice,” he murmured, inside my implant—and I remembered the arach forcing him to kneel, the arach feeding—

  “Don’t!”

  Mack’s voice jolted me out of my head, and T’Kit pressed close enough that I could feel the warmth coming off her black-and-golden hide. The queen looked up from the table in the center of the room, and indicated where Mack and Tens should sit. She caught my eye, and gestured towards T’Kit, and I understood I needed to follow the vespis bodyguard’s lead.

  There was nothing like learning on the job.

  I was aware of Mack watching as I went to stand with the queen’s bodyguard. T’Kit and I took up the open spot at the end of the line—and we waited. When the door opened, next, it was to reveal the foreman, juggling a laptop that he was still trying to use. He glanced up as the door slid wide, made eye contact with the queen, and then stumbled forward, speaking as he came.

  “Uh, your Majesty,” and he tried to bow, almost dropped the lap-top, rescued it, and hurried to the table, his face crimson with embarrassment and consternation. He was still talking as he reached the table.

  “I have the specs you asked for, and a list of personnel, but I don’t see how we’re going to be able to fin…”

  His voice faded as he realized the queen had company, and his eyes shifted to Mack, and Tens, and then across to me.

  “Please sit, Fabian. There is one more group who needs to be here.”

  “Oh. Yes, your Majesty. At once,” and he slid into the seat closest to where he was standing, fumbling the lap-top onto the table, before hiding behind the screen as he tapped nervously at the keyboard.

  He startled when the door to the conference room slid open behind him—and spun in his chair to watch as the Odyssey delegation strode in. If I hadn’t known any better, I would have said they thought they owned the place. Fortunately, I did know better, and so did the queen, even if her bodyguards stirred restlessly on either side of her.

  I followed T’Kit’s example, and settled my hands over the Blazer 54. Together, we eyed the Odyssey contingent, noting how they kept their hands well away from their weapons, even though they’d come armed.

  “Odyssey go nowhere unarmed.” Delight intruding into the implant and taking what she wanted, as usual. “Not even to friendly negotiations, and definitely not in arach invasion areas.”

  Well, that made sense to me.

  T’Kit read the exchange, as, I’m sure, did all the other vespis in the room. Honestly, if Delight had wanted a private conversation, she should have chosen a head that at least had some defenses against psionic incursions. Delight said nothing, but she rolled her eyes, and led her people several steps into the room, and came to a stop.

  “Your Majesty,” she said, “Please accept Odyssey’s invitation to board the Sugarsides, and to discuss this matter in private.”

  The queen inclined her head, and rose from the table.

  “We would be honored, Agent,” she said, her guards falling in around her as she made her way towards the door. “Come, Mack. Bring Tens and Fabian.”

  It wasn’t hard to imagine Mack gritting his teeth at her high-handed tone, but I didn’t say a word, as I walked beside T’Kit. If the queen wanted us present, who were we to argue? We had a debt to repay.

  The ride over to the Sugarsides was short and uneventful, and we boarded the cruise liner without incident. To be honest, I was half-expecting to have arach appear, either from out of the air vents, or on the radar, and I was glad we’d been allowed to keep our weapons. Delight and her team led us down several corridors and up a level, before reaching a conference room, with a long, wide viewport showing a backdrop of stars.

  The humans glanced at it, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t for the view. We’d all seen something like it, before. No, most of us were looking for movement that would indicate a ship coming in,
or a suited incursion. The queen, on the other hand, came to a full stop, and was staring, and I realized that she might not have seen this sky, before.

  She raised a hand, signaling her guard to halt, and just stood there, taking in the stars, and then she looked to Fabian, and seated herself at the table, with him at her side, and her guards arrayed around her. Once she was settled, the queen turned to Delight.

  “Speak,” she commanded.

  “You need a repair dock,” Delight said, “and Odyssey will need repair facilities beyond what you can provide. We are willing to partner with Mack and his crew, with the vespis, and with the human repair firm of K’Kavor to create a new company, and build the facilities.”

  “Our people also need to be trained for the stars,” the queen told her, and Fabian’s face showed surprise.

  Apparently the vespis hadn’t shown an interest before. Well, I thought, sucks to be you; they’re showing one, now. This earned me glances from Delight, Tekravzary, Mack, Tens, and every vespis in the room. T’Kit nudged me in the ribs, and I closed my eyes.

  “Sorry,” I whispered, and watched as the grown-ups at the table—Delight’s words, not mine—got down to work. In the end K’Kavor was scheduled to have a training academy whose ownership and management would gradually shift from Odyssey to the planet’s ruling council.

  “As soon as we establish one,” Queen Tekravzary said, and then pushed away from the table. Looking to Delight, and passing her gaze across Mack and Tens, she added, “As much as this is important to us, I still have an arach incursion with which to deal—and Mack must fulfil his contract. We need to be back on K’Kavor, now.”

  Delight, too, rose from the table.

  “Your Majesty, we have but one more matter.” She waited, continuing only, when the queen paused and turned to look at her. “How does the interrogation of the settlement’s invaders progress? Have you had any results?”

  Tekravzary continued moving towards the door, arching an eyebrow as she went.

  “What makes you think any prisoners were taken?”

  Delight sighed.

  “Your Majesty, we are able to scan the area.”