Secretly I studied them. These pirates clearly weren’t trained soldiers. Vlep didn’t understand muzzle control; he turned and absently swung the weapon toward the others when they spoke to him. I wasn’t surprised. The Superiority denounced what they called “aggression,” and its people were unlikely to have combat training. Winzik and his cronies liked it that way. It made people easier to control.
So maybe this group had formed from exiles? A couple had weapons at their hips—a knife on the burl, and what appeared to be a pistol at Vlep’s side. But they hadn’t used those on me. They’d purposely taken me alive. Though perhaps they’d been surprised by how well I fought, and how well I’d been armed.
I could probably exploit their ignorance. At least, someone more capable could have exploited it. I didn’t have the training for this kind of thing, I…
I couldn’t really use that argument anymore, could I?
I hadn’t been training as a spy, but I’d infiltrated the Superiority. And arguably I’d done a pretty good job. At least until everything had gone wrong at the end.
I’d chosen to come here. It was time to stop complaining about my situation.
“Hey, Vlep,” I said, trying to hurry up and catch him at the front of the group. I stumbled almost immediately, nearly tripping on hidden vines. Running away wasn’t really an option, not while my hands were tied.
I righted myself with some help from the dione, then called again. “Vlep. You all, you’re exiles, aren’t you? Making the best of a bad situation? I can help you. I’m not your enemy.”
“In here,” the heklo said, “everyone’s our enemy.”
“I’m a soldier,” I said. “I can train your people. Help you. I just need a little information. About this place, and about—”
He stopped and turned his gun on me. “No talking unless you’re asked a question. You’re in Cannonade territory now. Keep your head down and hope I don’t decide you’re too much trouble to be worth keeping alive.”
“You know, Vlep,” one of the other heklo said, “I think I might know her. Is that…Winzik’s pet human?”
“Winzik?” Vlep snapped. “Who is that?”
“Sorry,” the heklo said. “I forget how little about the outside gets in here. One of the high officials of the Superiority keeps a human bodyguard. I think that’s her.”
“Curious,” Vlep said, narrowing his eyes at me. “Why would they send you to chase an exile, human? Or did you finally cross the Superiority and earn your inevitable reward?”
They’d mistaken me for Brade? Guess I wasn’t the only one who had trouble distinguishing one alien from another.
As soon as I thought of Brade, I winced. I’d failed so badly in trying to recruit her. She was cytonic, and was the one who had summoned the delver that had gone on to attack Starsight. If I’d been able to get through to her somehow, all of this would—
A terrible monstrous call tore through the jungle. It was so deep and sonorous, it made the trees vibrate. The entire group froze in place and peered outward through the trees and vines. What in the unholy universe could make such a sound?
“It’s getting closer,” Vlep whispered. “Quickly. Back to the ships.”
Wait.
Ships?
Dared I hope they had starfighters in here? I sure would feel more confident in the cockpit of a ship. When they started walking again, I hurried along with them. And gloriously, like debris parting to reveal heaven itself, the trees fell away and we entered a small clearing—with three ships in it. Two midsize civilian craft and a sleek, dangerous-looking starfighter.
It was like fate had seen me struggling and decided to send me a little gift—in the form of an interceptor-class ship with twin destructors. I was so captivated by its beauty that I missed something important. The group had halted around me, and they weren’t looking at the ships—but at the two pirates who had presumably been left to guard them.
One was a dione, who seemed panicked and was trying to administer some kind of medical kit to the other—a burl, who was sitting on the ground by one of the ships. Female, I assumed from her size.
And her face was melting.
Chapter 3
The strange visage made me gape in shock. Though her body was gorilla-shaped, and she was wearing utilitarian clothing like the others, she had no nose, just a small lump where one had been, and a thin slit for a mouth. Her cheeks sagged to the sides, and her eyes—a milky white—were open and staring forward.
There was something distinctly unnatural about that face. What had happened to her?
“Tie down the prisoner for now,” Vlep told the dione—who yanked me over to the side of the clearing. There they anxiously tied my hands—still bound behind me—to part of a tree to hold me in place. A root perhaps? Then the dione ran over to join the others gathering around the burl.
I immediately started trying to worm free. Unfortunately, their knot-tying skills were superior to their combat abilities. I was secured tightly, so I resorted to rubbing my binding against the bark in hopes of making it fray.
“What happened?” Vlep demanded of the dione guard. “What did you do to her?”
“Nothing! I just wandered out into the trees to relieve myself, then came back to…” The confused dione gestured at the figure.
Scud. That melty-faced alien was getting unnerving. The others argued for a moment, then one suggested they try the “reality ashes,” which turned out to be the silvery dust from my pocket. Vlep began sprinkling it on top of the burl.
As I watched, her eyes started to glow. Beneath the skin, as if there were something inside her. A pure white light. It reminded me…
Of the eyes. Of delvers.
Oh, Saints.
I tried to yank free of the root, and it did have some give to it—but I wasn’t quite strong enough to pull it out of the ground. So I returned to rubbing my bonds on the bark.
“A little to the left,” a peppy voice said from behind. “There’s a rougher part there that might help.”
I paused, then twisted to look over my shoulder. To where a small drone hovered, hidden among the underbrush.
“M-Bot!” I said, then hushed, glancing at the pirates. They were only about seven meters away, but fortunately they didn’t seem to have heard. “You found me!”
“Well, you weren’t exactly quiet, Spensa,” M-Bot said, hovering closer. “I see you found some friends. That’s…nice. Look, we need to talk. A heart-to-heart. Heart-to-processing-unit-simulating-a-biological-function-like-a-heart.”
“Now’s not a great time!”
M-Bot shook a grabber arm at me. “The emotions of biological beings often come at inconvenient times; I’ve dealt with yours on many occasions. And Spensa…I think I have feelings now.”
“That’s…not surprising. You had them before, no matter what you said.”
“Spensa,” M-Bot continued, “I’ve been thinking. And…and feeling. I really was angry that you left me behind to be ripped apart, gutted, and killed. But I understand why you did it. I shouldn’t have been so angry at you. I…overreacted.”
“Great,” I said, struggling to get loose. “I’m sorry too, and I forgive you.”
“You do?”
“Yes, of course,” I said, twisting to the side to show him my bound wrists. “Look, can you—”
“Oh, thank you, Spensa!” he said. “Thank you, thank you. I feel so warm! Maybe my power matrix is overheating. But, but, it’s marvelous! I feel like I’m going to cry, though that’s physically impossible for me.”