by Erica Rue
“Cora, you’re all right,” he said, giving her shoulder a squeeze. She could see the relief on his face in the soft light of the glowglobes, but it was gone in another instant, replaced by the stern mask she’d come to expect from Regnator Michael Bram.
“What happened? Was Evy with you?”
“Evy followed us,” Cora said, fixing her eyes on the ground. “I thought Lithia was working for the Farmer. She had a communicator…”
Her father set his lips in a hard line. “Where’s Evy?”
“She’s still with them. She wouldn’t come back with me. I tried. She wanted to stay,” Cora said.
“And you let her?”
“I had no choice! Lithia took the medicine for the demon sickness. I had to bring it back. Wait—” She reached into the small bag where she had stored the vial in her escape. It wasn’t there. “How?” She looked up at her father. “It’s gone.”
Her father frowned and leaned back. “Cora…”
He didn’t need to scold her. Disappointment always cut deeper than wrath. She wasn’t the one who was always running off into the woods, getting into trouble. Except for this one time. “I’m sorry,” she replied, blinking back tears. “They won’t hurt Evy, though.”
“You don’t know that.” His voice shut down the justification she had been preparing on her ride home.
Michael looked over his shoulder. His assistant was approaching. “We’ll talk when I get back. In the meantime, you’ll need to explain to your aunt and uncle where Evy is. Go to them at once.”
“Where are you going?”
“The Ficarans have raided one of the farms. They used the Flyers.” Her father looked thoughtful for a moment. “Do you know how they got them working?”
Cora shook her head. “No, in fact, Lithia and the other outsiders had to escape from the Ficarans. They weren’t working together.”
“As far as you know, but they’ve lied to you before.”
And you fell for it, Cora, you stupid child. Her father didn’t need to remind her.
One of her father’s cavalrymen approached, but waited at a distance. Her father summoned him with the slightest flick of his fingers.
“Yes?” he asked.
“Regnator,” the rider said, “the men are anxious to get going, but Delia and Elijah have requested to see you before you leave.”
“I’ll only be another minute.” Michael sighed. “Tell Delia and Elijah that their concerns will have to wait until I return. The demons they claim to have seen in the woods aren’t the ones who attacked us.”
Despite his command, a man and woman, clearly Delia and Elijah, approached unannounced. Delia spoke first. “That’s not our concern. We have other suspicions about the demons. This is urgent.”
“As is my mission. Take your concerns to Benjamin. He’s my deputy while I’m gone.”
Her father’s assistant stood in their path and began to herd them away. Delia pursed her lips, and Elijah glared at her father. Cora didn’t like it. She didn’t like them.
Her father gave her one final look before returning to his men. “I expected more from you.”
Cora blinked back tears.
Tomorrow, she would find a way to be helpful. To make amends to her father, and to everyone. She listened to the cavalry, a healthy mix of maximutes and machi, depart through the open gates until only the routine nighttime sounds remained, the laughing hoot of an owl and the persistent song of the bugs that Evy loved so much.
The ATV had been moved elsewhere while Cora had spoken with her father, and the gates were closing. Exhaustion began to overwhelm her as she made her way to the Temple. Her aunt and uncle might already be asleep, and she dreaded waking them to face the ire of her Aunt Amelia.
8. BEL
“Stop it, Daya,” Bel said, half asleep. She rolled over, but the girl kept poking her. Classic Daya. So eager to start the day. “I’m still sleeping.”
“Bel?” the girl said.
That voice was wrong. Bel sat up and looked at the girl. Not Daya. It couldn’t be. Daya was dead, along with her parents and her brother Halen. The Vens had killed them all. This girl was Evy. Bel was on Kepos, the so-called garden planet, and she had almost let a Ven kill her a few days ago.
The thought released enough adrenaline into her bloodstream to wake her up completely. The others had tucked her into bed, then left. On the bedside table she saw her manumed. Zane must have fixed it. She tapped out a quick thanks to him, then looked up at Evy.
“How long was I asleep?”
“All day. It’s dark out.” That explained why she felt great. A full day of rest.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Evy. Did you find something to eat?”
“Yeah.”
“What did you do all day?”
Evy grinned and came back with two clear plastic containers that she had found. Each contained some dirt, sticks, and leaves. Evy had spent the day bug hunting. Upon closer observation, Bel saw that she had poked a few holes in the top of each. She must have used a sharp knife, unsupervised. No parents to yell at her, though.
She remembered those days from her own childhood. Once she had used her mother’s jam jars to collect critters from the lake near the colony. Her father had been impressed as she went through her finds with him. She had even managed to catch a scale bug. They were hard to find and nearly impossible to catch, but she had finally done it. When her mother came in, she was less than pleased. Turns out those jars had been set out because she was planning on making jam. Halen had helped her return all of her finds to the lake, even the scale bug, but she had washed the jars herself and refused to eat any of that batch of jam.
“What do you have there?” Bel asked.
“This is some kind of ant. I call them pincher ants because they really hurt.” She pointed to a rather large ant pacing along the bottom of the container. “And there’s a burrow bug. They dig down in the dirt, but you can see the outline of his shell.” It took Bel a second, but she finally saw the outline where the bug was hiding. She’d ask to uncover it and get a better look later to see if she recognized it. She had some guesses as to its family and genus, but on this planet, anything was possible.
Evy still hadn’t shown her the other container.
“What’s in there?”
“I saved it for last. I’ve never seen it before.”
With that, Evy produced a terrifying bug. It looked like it had a stinger. Its elongated abdomen pulsed in anger. Broad red stripes along its thorax warned of a painful sting.
“Be careful with this one, Evy,” she warned. “I don’t know what its sting will do.”
“I know. I didn’t touch it. It looks scary, but it’s new. It’s the first one I’ve found. I couldn’t just leave it. I’m gonna call it a red-stripe stinger.”
Sounded good to Bel. She inspected the holes on the tops of the containers. They were small. Even the giant ant wouldn’t be able to escape through them.
“Just promise me you won’t play with the red-stripe stinger until we figure out what he is, okay?”
“Okay. I already got bit by the pincher ant today, so I don’t really want to get bit again anyway.”
Evy held up her finger to show Bel her battle scar, a welt that looked like it probably still hurt. Bel had gotten a few bites of her own like that.
“Did you run it under cold water? That always helps me.”
As Evy went to the sink to take her advice, Bel asked, “What’s your favorite thing about bugs?”
“There are so many different kinds. You can never find them all. What about you?”
“I like their exoskeletons. I used to think they were inside out.” Evy laughed at that, and Bel had an idea. “Evy, since you showed me your finds, do you want to see my collection? I only brought part of it with me, but I still think there will be a few new bugs for you to see.”
Bel took her on board the Calypso. She expected to find her bugs a mess in her cabin. After all, there hadn’t been time to put t
hem away before the Ven attack, but she could probably piece together any that had fallen apart. It might be fun to have to find replacements for any that were damaged beyond repair.
So, she was surprised to find her bugs organized, or at least looking neat. Someone had come in and cleaned everything up. Zane. It had to be. He hadn’t known how to organize them properly, but he had collected the ones that had fallen and broken, and put them back with the others. She smiled. He was thoughtful like that. He did things just to be nice. She noticed he was extra nice to her, but the thought made her smile fall. That would never work out. He would never accept that she couldn’t be the girlfriend he imagined, even if a part of her wanted to.
The sound of small footsteps running up to join her helped her shake off the thought. She turned to Evy. “They’re a bit of a mess because of the Ven attack, but this is part of my collection.”
Evy stared at the cases. She seemed drawn to the more colorful bugs.
“That one is so pretty,” she said, pointing to a bright green dragonfly with iridescent wings.
“You want it?” Bel offered. These dragonflies were everywhere at StellAcademy.
Evy could barely contain her excitement. “Really?”
“Yeah, I’ll be glad to know it’s going to someone who can appreciate it. Let’s take these back inside.”
Bel and Evy grabbed the cases that held her bugs and took them inside so Evy could examine them. Evy gingerly took her shiny, new bug and secured it in a small container. She pulled another one out of her bag and produced a black beetle.
“This is the biggest Cela beetle I’ve found. I want you to have it.”
Bel inspected the beetle. Whatever it was, she didn’t have one. “This is awesome. Thank you, Evy.”
***
Between the bugs and needing some sleep, Evy wouldn’t interrupt her now. Time to get to work. She wasn’t looking forward to examining the dead Ven, but anything she learned from it could mean the difference between life and death. She was, however, looking forward to cutting it up, purely out of spite.
Zane had sent Bel a message while she’d been talking to Evy. He’d loaded some classified data about the Vens onto her manumed in case it helped. He’d apparently done a little bit of his own data-gathering when he was helping Lithia access the secured Alliance database, but Bel wasn’t complaining.
After plugging her nose and throwing on some old clothes she had brought for fieldwork, she headed down to the lab Sam had indicated and got everything ready. She stared at the Ven, but its eerie dead eyes did not stare back. Something about those eyes bothered her.
Bel rummaged through the supplies Oberon had packed to find the gloves. How was Oberon still alive? Why hadn’t the Vens killed him?
There were four Vens hunting him. There had been four Vens in the boarding party. Three to five Vens was the normal size for a hunting party. They were like specialized teams, and those teams would work in tandem. There had to be some reason the professor was alive, and figuring that out might be the key to saving him.
“First, though, time to find out why you’re blue,” Bel said. She put on her safety glasses and added a face mask, if only to reduce the power of its stench.
It smelled worse than she expected. She touched her face where it had cut a spiral into cheek, marking her. It was healing, but it still hurt. There would be a scar. Another reminder. Bel carved a jagged ‘B’ onto one of its arm plates. Now they were both marked. She pulled up all available information on Ven anatomy, including the new stuff from Zane.
There was one entry about juveniles. Apparently this one had been blue, as well. Pretty damning evidence, but she’d check a few other factors, too.
Raised bumps on the shoulders? No, but this Ven’s shoulders were already turning green.
Significantly below average height and weight? Significantly? Who wrote this? That was an arbitrary modifier. Where were the numbers? This Ven was smaller, but it had been the biggest of the boarding party. Again, it looked quite close to full maturity, if that’s what the green meant.
Underdeveloped fertilization sac? Again, the diagrams were not clear, and the description was vague. Though annoyed, she was glad to have a pass on checking that one for now. Maybe when Dione returned they could revisit it.
She didn’t have a lot to go on, and despite her frustration with the vague information, she supposed whoever had written the report hadn’t had a lot to go on either. The results of her examination were inconclusive, but the blue coloration seemed like strong enough evidence. She was pretty sure that Dione was right. She’d noticed Dione had a knack for these things. It was dangerous to make assumptions, but she wasn’t writing a paper for publication. She was trying to survive, and she wanted to follow this train of thought further.
If these Vens were juveniles, why were they sent on board? Why not send actual warriors, who would have made quick work of them all? The stun gas never would have worked on larger, fully grown Vens, and that was the only thing that had given them a chance.
The Ven’s open eyes with their narrow, rectangular pupils looked wrong to her. She glanced away and grimaced. She hated Vens.
They sent their children in. No, they were adolescents. The big one had already started turning green. That must have meant the Vens saw their ship as no threat. It was strange they would even attack something so small and pathetic, unless they needed an easy target. She had an idea. A first kill, to initiate the ones who were coming of age. She needed to call Dione.
“Bel, how are you doing?” Dione said when she picked up. “Is everything okay?”
“I’m fine. I think I figured out why the Vens were blue. I can’t be sure, but I think you were right about them being juveniles. I started thinking about why they would send juveniles over to board us.”
“And?” Dione said.
“It’s a ritual. A first hunt.”
“They didn’t think we’d be much of a fight,” Dione said, picking up her train of thought. “An easy win.”
“Exactly,” Bel said.
“That could explain some of the weird stuff I saw. The Vens were all watching some readouts, maybe monitoring the juveniles. Then when I was leaving, a Ven chased me to the airlock. It could have grabbed me, but it just stood at the door, like it couldn’t follow. Maybe the adults weren’t allowed to interfere.”
“That doesn’t explain why they didn’t kill the professor,” Bel said.
“I’m not complaining. I just hope we find him.”
“Any sign?”
“No,” Dione said. “We’re about to stop for the night. Hopefully we’ll figure something out.”
“Good luck,” Bel said, staring into the Ven’s open eyes.
“Thanks,” Dione said.
Bel was about to end the call when something clicked into place. “Oh my god!”
“What? What happened?”
The realization had hit Bel suddenly, like her brain had been working on the problem in the background.
“Dione, their eyes. They have rectangular pupils. Those are usually found on animals like goats that need to see in as wide a range as possible, to watch for predators. Predators usually have vertical slits to help them judge distance.”
“Octopuses have them, too, and they’re predators,” Dione replied. “It’s not that unusual, though I guess they’re prey for larger animals, like sharks.”
“You’re missing the point. The redundant organs, the rigid plates covering their entire bodies, the rectangular pupils, all of it.”
“No,” Dione said. “You’re not suggesting…”
“Yes, the Vens have a natural predator.”
“Those adaptations could be vestigial from a time when they did have a predator.”
“If something out there can kill Vens, I want to find it.” Bel clenched her jaw.
Dione didn’t answer for a moment. “Bel, if you’re right, why would you want to find a predator so strong that it can kill Vens? What if it wants to kill us,
too? Think about Marcan toads. They were introduced on Ulla Prime to control beetles that were decimating harvests, but they started eating local beneficial insects and pollinators.”
Bel didn’t have a good answer for that. “Sometimes it works. What about the fungal infection that killed off the invasive Balta moths back home?”
“That’s an odd example,” Dione replied. Bel could practically hear her thinking. “The introduction of the fungus was an accident, right? I swear I read that the intentional attempts to introduce the fungus failed. Years later, the fungus took hold, but it was an accidental introduction.”
“The point I’m making is that it worked. The fungus resulted in a population collapse of the Balta moth. What if there’s something out there than can cause a population collapse of the Vens?”
“When it goes wrong, it can get really bad. On Ulla Prime, they had to eradicate the toads, and they had to breed and reintroduce the beneficial insects,” Dione said. “It’s a good lead, Bel, but before we jump to conclusions, see what else you can find out.”
Bel could tell she was making Dione uncomfortable. “Will do. And good luck, to both of you.”
Bel ended the call. She wondered what the Vens were doing out there. Probably preparing for an assault on the Ficarans. She hoped Lithia would be okay.
“Sam, where are the Vens?” she asked to assuage her worries.
“They’ve retreated into the woods near the Ficaran settlement.”
“Retreated? What do you mean retreated?”
“The Vens made an attack, but the Ficarans repelled them, based on the comms chatter.” So Sam was using the communicators to eavesdrop. Their manumeds, too.
“Sam, why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because there’s nothing you could have done. I didn’t see a point.”
“Is Lithia okay?”
“Yes.” Bel detected just a hint of hesitation.
It looked like she would be giving Lithia a call, too.
9. LITHIA
The wounded were all safely inside the Field Temple, and everyone else, including Lithia and Brian, was in the square.
