Knight

by Timothy Zahn

  The three aliens were staring down into the arena, Fievj and one of the others leaning forward with their palms pressed against the transparent section. Fievj chattered something—“Call the Wisps,” the translation came. “Send them in immediately. The fire must be stopped.”

  “How many?” one of the others asked.

  “All of them,” Fievj snarled. “Every Wisp in the arena area. Hurry!”

  Nicole smiled tightly. So that was what Jeff had been doing. The stuff he’d been fiddling with must have been something he could use to start a fire, with the water jug he’d asked for standing ready in case the Wisps didn’t get there in time to put it out.

  Kahkitah was staring at her, his mouth hanging open, his eyes wide. Nicole held out a soothing hand toward him and crawled back. “It’s all right,” she murmured. “I think Jeff’s started a fire as a diversion.”

  “He started a fire?” the Ghorf breathed. His face changed as he seemed to absorb that. “Is it working?”

  “Let’s see.” Cautiously, Nicole raised her eyes above the level of the barrier.

  And instantly dropped down again. “They’re coming!” she whispered, grabbing Kahkitah’s hand and pulling him toward the barrier. “Hurry—lie close to the barrier and don’t move and they might miss us.”

  By the time she and Kahkitah were in position she could hear the slap-slap of running footsteps. She pressed herself against the barrier, wondering distantly what she would do if they spotted her.

  To her relief, they didn’t. The two Shipmasters charged past, heading for the stairway she and Kahkitah had just come up. Too late, she wished now she’d taken the cloth out of the doorway. Hopefully, in their rush to get down to the arena they wouldn’t notice it.

  Still, two Shipmasters down still left one to go. Worse, that one was Fievj, who knew Nicole by sight and probably wouldn’t be fooled by a wet jumpsuit. She waited until the others had disappeared from view, then looked carefully over the barrier again.

  Fievj was still there, standing between them and the far door. But instead of just peering down at the arena he’d moved to one of the binocular devices and was pressing his face into it.

  And as long as he stood that way, with his vision blocked by the flanges of the binoculars, he was blind to anything happening up here.

  It was a risk, but they had no choice. If she and Kahkitah were fast enough and quiet enough, they should be able to slip past him. She turned to Kahkitah, hoping he would understand her plan—

  An instant later she had to stifle a gasp as the Ghorf grabbed her arm and headed around the balcony, all but pulling her behind him. Apparently, he’d seen Fievj and come to the same conclusion.

  Fievj never lifted his eyes from his binoculars. A nerve-racking minute later, they were around the edge of the balcony, past the oblivious Shipmaster, and headed for the door.

  And as they reached it, Nicole looked over her shoulder. Beyond Fievj, clearly the object of his full attention, was a tendril of smoke rising from the arena.

  Jeff had started a fire, all right. Hopefully, he or the Wisps or the Shipmasters would be able to put it out before it burned the place down.

  From the confrontation Nicole had briefly heard when they’d first crossed the balcony earlier she’d been afraid that Fievj had sent the Q2 Wisps back to their proper section of the ship. He had indeed done so; but to her relief she found that he’d only sent them as far as the central corridor and the heat duct beyond it. They came at her summons and carried their two passengers across the duct without interference from either the Shipmasters or the Q1 Wisps.

  Nor, it appeared, had the Shipmasters managed to take control of the rest of Q2 as Nicole had feared they might. They traveled through that section toward the rear of the ship, again without any encounters or problems.

  “What do we do now?” Kahkitah asked when they were finally back in Q4.

  “We go find the person I need to talk to,” Nicole said, looking around her. She’d had one-way communications with the Fyrantha’s Caretaker from various places on the ship, but the only place she’d ever talked to him face-to-face—well, face-to-hologram, anyway—was that animal medical center the Wisps had taken her to once.

  “Is it far?”

  “You don’t have to come,” Nicole said, turning toward the centerline heat duct.

  “No, I’ll come,” Kahkitah said. “I fear for you, Nicole, and wish to watch over you. But only if you don’t refuse, of course.”

  Nicole sighed. A lumbering bodyguard who had to have everything explained twice. Terrific.

  Still, she’d been pretty much on her own since leaving the hive. It might be nice to have some company. Especially company who could toss Wisps around if he had to. “Sure, come along,” she told him. “Let’s go see what Caretaker Ushkai can do for us.”

  twelve

  They found Ushkai in the exact same place where Nicole had last left him: standing in the long room lined by barred, twenty-foot-square cages that he’d told her had once been animal treatment areas.

  Ushkai’s human-looking image remained motionless as Nicole and Kahkitah walked toward it. Nicole kept her eyes on it, wondering if she was going to have to wake up whatever section of the Fyrantha’s computer ran the thing.

  Kahkitah, for his part, seemed fascinated by everything except the image. The Ghorf’s head and shoulders swung back and forth continuously as they walked, his eyes taking in everything, little bits of untranslated birdsong mutterings whistling through his gills.

  “What is this place?” he asked at last as they approached the waiting hologram. “Is it a prison?”

  “No, it was where they kept sick animals,” Nicole said. “The Fyrantha used to be a zoo.”

  “Really?” Kahkitah asked. “Where are the animals now?”

  “Probably dead,” Nicole said. “No, no—that’s not what I meant,” she added hastily as he gave off a horrified whistle. “I mean it was a long time ago. The animals would have died of old age.”

  “Oh,” Kahkitah said, sounding only slightly less outraged. “Is that why all the arenas have such different landscapes?”

  “I guess,” Nicole said. She hadn’t really thought about that aspect, but now that Kahkitah pointed it out it was obvious. Different areas to show off different types of animals. “Okay, now, Ushkai is just a hologram, so let me do the—”

  “What is a hologram?”

  “He’s just an image that the Fyrantha is projecting here,” Nicole said. “When he talks, it’s a part of the ship talking through him.”

  “But the image is human,” Kahkitah objected. “If this is the Fyrantha speaking, why doesn’t it speak from a Wisp image?”

  “I don’t know,” Nicole said, feeling a flash of frustration. They were facing possible death for Jeff and the others, with the enslavement or destruction of Earth to follow. This wasn’t something she wanted to talk about right now. “Probably so he wouldn’t freak me out. Let me do the talking, okay?”

  “Of course.”

  “Greetings, Protector,” Ushkai said as they came up to him. “How may I serve?”

  “The Shipmasters are trying to get two of the human groups together to fight,” Nicole said. “I want to make it so that neither side can. On Earth animal doctors sometimes have to put the animals to sleep or keep them from moving. Are there any drugs aboard the Fyrantha that can do that?”

  For a couple of seconds Ushkai didn’t move or speak. “Ushkai?” Nicole prompted.

  “You wish to put them to sleep?”

  Nicole pursed her lips. Actually, now that she thought about it, that wouldn’t really do the job. The Shipmasters would just wait until everyone woke up. “No, not to sleep,” she said. “Something that … I don’t know. Something that won’t let them fight.”

  “Something that will prevent them from focusing on things around them, perhaps?” Kahkitah suggested.

  “Right—something that’ll confuse them,” Nicole agreed. “Can’t focus, or can
’t see straight. Maybe something that weakens their muscles?”

  “There were once such drugs,” Ushkai said. “There may still be some aboard.”

  Nicole let out a huff of relief. “Great,” she said. “Where are they?”

  “If such still exist, they will be in the boultho-three section of the ship.”

  “Great,” Nicole said again, searching her memory. She couldn’t remember ever hitting a section with that particular label. “Where is that?”

  “In the forward-left-hand part of the Fyrantha,” Ushkai said. “Boultho is the fourth section from the front.”

  Nicole’s relief vanished. Forward-left-hand part of the ship. In other words, Q1.

  Wonderful.

  “Is there anywhere else the drugs might be?” she asked, pretty sure she already knew the answer.

  “Or the instructions for making more of it?” Kahkitah suggested.

  Nicole looked at him in surprise. Of course—they didn’t need the drugs themselves if they could mix up a batch of their own.

  “There are no other places,” Ushkai said. His eyes turned to Kahkitah, and it seemed to Nicole that there was an odd look in them. “You speak of instructions, Ghorf. Do you wish the formula?”

  “Yes, that’s the word,” Kahkitah said. “Formula. Can you give it to us?”

  “No, wait,” Nicole said. She’d seen all the stuff Trake’s people had to do to make meth or get other drugs ready for the street. “No, Kahkitah was right the first time. We need the formula, but we also need all the instructions of how to make it.”

  “Surely Dr. Allyce can do that with only the formula,” Kahkitah suggested.

  “It’ll be a whole lot easier if she’s got everything,” Nicole said. “And we’ll also need to get all the ingredients,” she added, the sudden image of her grandmother putting together cookie dough popping into her head.

  Followed instantly by an image of her grandmother standing in a battle line with enemy greenfire guns blasting into her.

  She snapped away both images. “Are all the ingredients still aboard?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Ushkai said, his voice suddenly sounding reluctant. “Are you certain you wish to travel this route?”

  Nicole frowned. Travel this route? “You mean convince Fievj and the others that Earth people can’t fight? Sure. You got a better idea?”

  Again, Ushkai sent Kahkitah an odd look. “There are always other ideas. There are always other ways.”

  “I said a better idea,” Nicole growled. “Where do we get the formula and the instructions and ingredients?”

  For a moment Ushkai stared at her. Then he gestured behind him at a console tucked between two of the cages. “The instructions can be obtained there,” he said. “Ask for Setting Sun.”

  “And the Fyrantha will give it to me?”

  “Of course,” Ushkai said.

  Nicole sighed. Only the Fyrantha never gave her anything unless she used her inhaler.

  “The Fyrantha will also direct you to where the proper ingredients may be found,” Ushkai continued.

  “Yeah,” Nicole said between stiff lips. Which meant even more puffs on the inhaler.

  And of course, that was only the beginning. The instructions were bound to be long and complicated. With jobs that tricky, she always relied on Jeff or Carp or Levi to take notes while she dictated them, knowing she wouldn’t be able to hold on to all the older details while she was listening to and rattling off the newer ones.

  Except that Jeff and Carp weren’t here. All she had was Kahkitah, who’d never had to do that job before. “Is there any place in Q1 where I can get the instructions?” she asked. If she could sneak Carp out of the arena and over to some medical center there, they’d have a much better chance of getting everything clearly written down.

  “No,” Ushkai said. “Only here, where the Shipmasters have no authority or command, can the instructions be offered.”

  Kahkitah laid a big hand gently on Nicole’s shoulder. “I can do this, Nicole,” he said. “I’ve watched and listened to the others. I can do it.”

  Nicole took a deep breath. If she could get Carp out of Q1 and bring him here … but that would mean having to go through the Q1 Wisps again. Two more times, actually, in and out, plus a third to get back in again once they had everything they needed. Right now, she wasn’t even sure she and Kahkitah could run that line one more time, let alone three. “Fine,” she said, reluctantly. “Do you have a pad?”

  “Right here,” he said, pulling the cell-phone-sized device from one of his jumpsuit’s pockets. “And I have the pen, too,” he added brightly, holding it up.

  As if those massive fingers could write anything without it. “Okay,” she said. “If you’re sure.”

  “I’m sure.” Kahkitah lowered his hand back to his side and drew himself to his full height. “And you, Caretaker. Are you certain this will have the desired effect on humans?”

  “It will,” Ushkai assured him.

  “Because humans aren’t the animals of the Fyrantha’s zookeepers,” Kahkitah went on. “We don’t wish the Protector’s people to be harmed.”

  “They won’t be.”

  “And there are no other sources of the medicine itself?” Kahkitah persisted.

  “There are not.”

  Kahkitah nodded and settled back to his normal posture. “Very well.” He turned to Nicole. “Whenever you’re ready.”

  Nicole looked at Ushkai. There was still that strange look on his face, as if he was trying to say something else, if she would only ask the right question.

  Or, perhaps, trying not to say something else?

  But right now she couldn’t think of any more questions, and they were running out of time. “Yeah,” she said, cringing a little as she pulled out the inhaler Wesowee had given her. “Let’s do it.”

  * * *

  It was every bit as bad as Nicole had expected. Maybe even a little worse.

  The instructions for making Setting Sun were incredibly complicated, involving ingredients, amounts, orders of inclusion, temperatures, and even the length of time between procedures when the mixture had to simmer or cook or whatever. A lot of the words weren’t familiar, making her stumble over them and then having to hurry to catch up as the Fyrantha continued without any consideration for the fact that she was falling behind.

  In the end, it took four doses from her inhaler to get it all down, followed by three more to get the locations of all the ingredients Allyce would need.

  Nicole had no idea how much of her life she’d burned away in those few minutes. But whatever that damage, she was pretty sure she couldn’t really afford it.

  But she had no choice. That image of her grandmother being cut down by greenfire weapons was firmly set in her mind now, haunting her thoughts. There were a lot of people she knew, mostly Trake’s gang and the other gangs in the neighborhood, who she would be happy to see die that way. They deserved it. But not her grandmother.

  At least Kahkitah didn’t add to the problem. Through all her stumblings over strange words and her frantic attempts to catch up with the Fyrantha’s recitation he stood in front of her, rapidly scribbling down the words—or at least the sounds she was saying—without comment or complaint. In the end, there were only a few places where he’d failed to get exactly what she’d said, and in all of those they were able to figure out the correct words together.

  The next step was to go around Q4 gathering up the materials. The Fyrantha had given them the locations, but Nicole had no idea how easy they would be to identify. If she was lucky, everything would be in neatly labeled bottles or jars. If they weren’t, the whole thing might turn into a weird sort of scavenger hunt. All the more reason to get started right away.

  To her surprise and frustration, Kahkitah had other ideas.

  “You’re hungry, and you’re tired,” he said firmly, holding the pad with the screen pressed against his chest where she couldn’t see it. “You need food and sleep before we con
tinue.”

  “There’s food back at the arena,” Nicole growled, trying to grab the pad away from him.

  She might as well have tried to lift him off the floor. He resisted her pull for a moment, probably just to prove she didn’t have any hope of prying off his fingers, then raised the pad up over his head, putting it a good foot out of her reach. “The arena features a mix of food granules,” he said. “It may be nourishment in the strictest sense, but it’s hardly satisfying.”

  “It’s what Jeff and the others eat,” Nicole bit out, starting to get angry.

  Probably mostly because he was right. Her eyes felt like a spoonful of the beach sand was in them, and her stomach was growling regularly with reminders that she hadn’t eaten anything in more hours than she cared to count. A meal at the hive’s dining room, followed by a couple of hours of sleep in her own bed, sounded wonderful.

  But everything depended on her. Until she got the chemicals and instructions to Allyce, no one else could do anything except sit on their hands. Taking time to eat or even sleep—“Come on, Kahkitah, we don’t have time for this.”

  “You’re going to eat, and then you’re going to sleep,” the Ghorf said calmly. “That is truth. Arguing will merely further delay our return.”

  Nicole wanted to hurt him. She really wanted to hurt him. But as she glared at his calm shark face and bumpy body, she realized she had no idea how to do that.

  Besides, he was right. Fumbling around in her groggy state would probably cost more time and lead them down more dead ends than it would gain. A couple of hours of sleep, and she’d be ready to tackle the next part of the job.

  “Fine,” she bit out. “But if someone dies because of you—”

  “Then they die because of me,” he said firmly. “Not because of you. Because of me.”

  She tried one more glare. But even that was becoming too much effort. “Fine,” she said again. “Let’s get back to the vent, grab some Wisps, and get down to the hive.”

  And come to think of it, the trail mix back at the Q1 arena had looked pretty pathetic.