The Spider and the Fly

by C.E. Stalbaum

  ***

  “There are a lot more of them out there now,” Thomas whispered as he peered out the dirty window. “I don’t know how much longer we can stay here.”

  Selaris pressed her hands into her face and drew her knees in closer to her chest. She’d been stuffed inside this cellar for the better part of four hours now, waiting for the inevitable fallout after Foln discovered what had happened to Doctor Varm and his research. It had seemed like a reasonable compromise at the time—she could wait until the effects of the serum wore off, then storm out and confront Foln about what he’d done. Of course, in her fit of anxious rage she hadn’t figured out how she was actually going to get close to him with the Mire soldiers filling the city. The moment she left this cubbyhole they’d probably drag her back to him in chains to do Seraph-knew-what to her.

  “I still don’t understand why you want to hide from them,” Thomas said, leaning down next to her. “You can’t actually believe Foln would hurt you. You’re human. You’re a Gantrell!”

  She looked up at him from between her fingers. Only Thomas could have gone this long without an explanation. She’d asked him to find a place to hide for a while, and despite his obvious confusion he hadn’t uttered a single word of protest. Instead he’d led her here into one of the service tubes linking the various shield generators spread throughout the city, and he’d kept a more or less silent watch ever since.

  Markus was right about him. Thomas was a good man, if perhaps a bit scatterbrained. Selaris just prayed that she hadn’t doomed him right along with her.

  “Doctor Varm is dead,” she whispered, sliding her hands down her face.

  “What?” Thomas breathed. “How?”

  “I…” She swallowed and took a deep breath. “He attacked me. I was trying to stop him from synthesizing more of the soropan serum.”

  “Soropan serum?” He shook his head incredulously. “What are you talking about?”

  Selaris sighed. It was sometimes hard to remember how out of the loop he was. Not just him, actually—most people in the city had no idea what was really going on here. Foln had wanted her to prepare a speech to let the other humans know that they’d found a cure to the Pandrophage. He believed they’d rally around it even if the news sent the forty-thousand plus non-human citizens into a terrified frenzy.

  “Doctor Varm found a way to cure the Pandrophage, or at least suppress it,” she explained. “Foln used it, and it has given him incredible powers—far beyond what any of us are capable of.

  Thomas slouched back against one of the transparisteel conduits lining the wall. “What kind of powers?”

  “Telepathy, telekinesis…both stronger than I ever would have thought possible. He might even be more powerful than Markus, if you can believe it. It’s one of the main reasons he decided to take over the city.”

  “So the Damadus really did have a cure…”

  “The Damadus had nothing to do with it. Doctor Varm came up with it on his own. The problem is that it’s not really a cure—he said himself it was more of a stimulant, and he’s barely tested it. He thought it was dangerous, but Foln didn’t care. He wanted to start injecting Mire troops with it.”

  “Uh…that seems like a bad idea. A really, really bad idea. I think the aliens here are freaking out enough as it is.”

  Selaris nodded. “I tried to stop him from synthesizing it, but he was afraid of Foln. When I decided to activate the burnout protocols and destroy the whole lab, he shot me in the back with a stun blast.”

  “He shot you?” Thomas stammered. “Doctor Varm shot you?”

  “I don’t think he really wanted to hurt me, but…” She pressed her eyes shut and forced herself to take another calming breath. It didn’t really help. “I couldn’t let him synthesize more of it. I used my powers and shoved him away, and he hit his head on the table and…”

  The tears returned, and she buried her head in her knees again. He stood there silently for a long moment before leaning down and putting an arm on her shoulder.

  “That doesn’t sound like it was your fault,” he said softly. “He attacked you, right? You…you didn’t mean to hurt him.”

  Selaris swallowed again and nodded. She’d told herself the same thing about a thousand times by now, but her brain refused to listen. The fact of the matter was that she’d killed another person, a man who, in many ways, had been the closest thing she’d had to a real grandfather…

  No, Varm might have pretended to be her friend, but he was a murderer. He had killed her father, and then he had hidden the truth from her. Realistically, both he and Foln deserved death for what they’d done. They were the real enemies here.

  But somehow, the guilt just wouldn’t go away.

  “I activated the lab protocols and destroyed the rest of the serum,” Selaris told him. “I couldn’t let him make any more of it.”

  “Hmm,” Thomas murmured. “Do you think he might have backups?”

  “I don’t know, maybe. Probably.” She balled her hands into fists. “It doesn’t matter. Either way, I have to confront Foln eventually. He has to be stopped before he can do any more damage.”

  “I’m not sure what we can do,” Thomas said. “There are a lot of Mire soldiers out there. I even heard they’ve been shooting some of the aliens who won’t cooperate.”

  “I can try to reach the Council,” she suggested. “If I can get them out, maybe they’ll be able to help rally the people to fight back.”

  He licked nervously at his lips. “I’m not sure what anyone can do against this much firepower. Not many people here have weapons.”

  Sighing one last time, Selaris leapt to her feet. She wiped her face with the back of her hand and stared at her reflection on the wide power conduit casing. In principle, she was supposed to be the last of the Keledonian monarchy, the heiress of a proud and noble line of rulers who’d gained respect among humans and non-humans alike. Perhaps it was finally time for her to act like it.

  “I don’t know, but I have to do something,” she said. “You leave and head home. Foln won’t know you’re involved and you should be safe.”

  “There’s no way you can do this alone,” Thomas said as he stepped up behind her. “I can help. I bet the other students would too if you ask. Let me give them a call—”

  “No, I don’t want them to get hurt,” Selaris insisted, grabbing onto his hand. “Or you, for that matter. You were right earlier—Foln will get in a lot of trouble if he hurts me. The rest of the humans won’t put up with it.”

  He glanced out the small window at the troops clanking through the streets. “I don’t know, from the sounds of it he might not care…”

  “I’ll be fine,” she assured him, squeezing his hand. She wasn’t sure if she believed it or not, but it really didn’t matter. She was sick of hiding, and she was sick of letting Foln or anyone else push her around. “Trust me.”

  On impulse, Selaris leaned forward and kissed him. His entire body seemed to spasm when their lips touched, and she wondered dimly just how inexperienced he really was. But after a few seconds she pulled away and then quickly turned to head back through the corridor—

  “Wait a minute, what was that?”

  “It’s called a kiss,” she said wryly over her shoulder as she continued walking.

  “No, I mean beyond the barrier. I think I saw something outside the city.”

  Selaris pivoted around as he dove over to the closest access terminal and started madly keying at the interface. “What are you talking about?”

  “I think it was another ship,” he said. “Let me slice into the external sensors and check.”

  “You could just use my access code, you know,” she reminded him, striding over and pushing him out of the way. “It’s—wait a minute, that is my code!”

  “Er…yeah,” Thomas mumbled.

  Selaris turned and glared at him. “How long have you had this?”

  “Uh…a while. You should really change it more often.�
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  “Apparently,” she griped, pulling up the sensor logs. “It looks like it was a ship. But who…?”

  “Markus,” Thomas gasped as the readouts scrolled across the screen. “That’s the same shuttle he stole—he must have come back!”

  “That seems fast,” she commented, her heart suddenly pounding in her ears. “It’s only been three days.”

  “Maybe Vale came around after all. Or maybe she didn’t and he decided to pitch her out an airlock.”

  Selaris stared vacantly at the monitor as the shuttle swung about over the docking area. “I don’t know. I think he was planning to wait until this all blew over, and three days isn’t enough. Something else must have happened.”

  “Either way, this is our chance, isn’t it? You know he’ll go straight to Foln. We can talk to him and get him to help.”

  “I suppose so,” she whispered, trying unsuccessfully to shake the imminent sense of dread threatening to suffocate her. She should have been thrilled—if it was Markus, then he’d come back at exactly the right moment. He could help her take on Foln and force the Mire soldiers to step down. And yet…

  No, it couldn’t be that easy. Something must have happened for him to return, and for whatever reason her instincts were telling here that things were about to get a lot more complicated.

  “Here, we can run through these passages all the way to one of the shielding pylons on the docks,” Thomas told her. “If we hurry, we can pop out and catch him before he gets to the Agora.”

  “Okay,” Selaris said. “Then let’s do it.”