Nova War

She glanced at a strip of soil populated by blue-leafed things resembling a cross between a porcupine and a cabbage; unfamiliar smells came to her as their leaves slowly reached towards her, suggesting what she was looking at was as much animal as plant.

But of far greater interest than any of that was the collection of underwear, trousers and T-shirts bundled together inside one of the stringy hammocks.

'Where did you find these?' she exclaimed, pulling each item out and studying it with barely concealed delight, before leaving it hanging in the gravity-less air and then digging out the next.

'There's a small human presence in the Night's End system,' Roses explained. 'So finding clothes for you was less difficult than I expected.'

Dakota picked up a bra and tried it on. It felt tight under her breasts. She dropped it and found another. In fact there were several of everything there, as if Roses hadn't been quite sure what to get, or in what size.

She glanced over at him with wry amusement: Definitely the male of the species. She tried on the second bra and found it fitted well enough. She pulled some more stuff on, revelling in the feel of cloth against her bruised skin, while at the same time becoming more and more aware of the one thing she'd had to learn to ignore during the past several weeks: the fact that she stank to high heaven.

Her skin was greasy and dark, and her unbrushed teeth felt matted and sticky. But, then, basic human sanitation hadn't been easy to come by, and she had a feeling a species that utilized scent as one of its modes of interpersonal communication might not be so big on washing any odour off. At least she'd been able to get rid of the worst of it by standing on the ledge outside her cell whenever it chanced to rain.

'I need water,' she said. 'Something I can clean myself with?'

Roses clicked for a moment. 'You wish to hide your scent?'

She stared at the alien in complete non-comprehension. 'No, clean myself. I don't like to feel this dirty, and I haven't washed in weeks. My teeth feel like-'

'You are not thirsty,' said the alien. 'I understand.' He clicked and chittered into his interpreter. 'You will have an appointment with one of our surgeons.'

'No, really, all I need is a cloth and a – oh, forget it.' She began rolling a T-shirt over her head, regardless, while the alien watched with apparent impassiveness from nearby. 'Roses, I'd like to ask you a couple of questions.'

'You may ask,' Days of Wine and Roses replied, 'but whether I can answer is another matter.'

'Okay, exactly where are you taking me?'

'We're rendezvousing with a coreship scheduled to materialize in the outer system in four days' time, local measure.'

Dakota nodded, understanding that nuclear pulse-ships were extremely fast, although outlawed in most human systems for obvious reasons. It took her a moment to realize this was as much as Roses was going to tell her without further prompting. 'And once we're there?'

'And then you will be granted the privilege of an audience with the Queen of Darkening Skies.'

Dakota sighed. 'And then will I be free to go?'

A pause. 'It's not quite so simple as that.'

'Really,' Dakota replied with another sigh. 'I had a feeling you'd say something like that.'

'If you make any further attempts to grab control of this ship, I will be forced to-'

'Kill me, yes. I understood you the first time.'

'You should realize,' Roses added, 'that there's not much more I'm able to tell you. I have my orders from my Hive-Queen, and they are to bring you to her at any cost. That's all.'

Dakota nodded, wondering if she would have the opportunity, once more, to try and lose herself in a coreship, and remembering how badly that had turned out the last time. 'Then you ought to be aware of something, Roses.'

The Bandati's wide, lustrous wings – now free of their bindings – twitched in what she chose to perceive as a noncommittal gesture.

'I can do a lot more,' she explained, 'than just take control of this ship. I could grab something like those mines back there and pull them right up against the hull, easily enough energy to overload your shield generators and turn us all to radioactive slush. I could ram us into the side of the coreship when we reach it. When I told you I didn't need to be rescued by you or anyone else, I meant it. I had a plan, a way out.'

'There was nowhere for you to go. And, even assuming you had found some way to escape into Darkwater and remain at large, you would never have been able to find transport off-planet. You have no understanding of Bandati culture, no ability to communicate with the majority of Bandati, even assuming you could have found any willing to help you.'

She smiled, despite herself. 'There are other humans on Ironbloom. I even had control of half the city's transportation systems by the time you found me. Just how sure are you?'

Dakota knew she was playing a perilous game. Show herself too powerful, and it might just give Roses or his Queen a reason to think she was too dangerous to keep alive.

Roses chose not to rise to the bait. 'You should know,' he informed her, 'there's a very good chance Immortal Light will be waiting for us once we reach the coreship. The chances are good that there'll be yet more fighting.'

'And all because of me?' Dakota replied, half to herself.

'The Queen of Immortal Light Hive will not give up,' Roses continued, 'so long as we remain in this system.'

'What's to stop them following you inside the coreship as well?'

'Nothing, as I'm sure you very well know. We fully expect to continue the battle there, as long-'

'As long as it doesn't involve nukes and doesn't threaten the integrity of the coreship, I know,' Dakota finished for him. 'You burned down an entire city and fried what was left of it with radiation, all apparently so you could steal me from another Hive. How many Bandati died because of what you did, Roses? For that matter, how many humans? All this,' Dakota cried, waving her hands to either side as if to indicate not only the ship around them, but the system beyond the hull. 'Was it really worth it?'

'For the prize you carry?' Wide black eyes stared at her in contemplation. 'For an interstellar drive? Perhaps, yes.'

'Immortal Light still have Lucas Corso.' She decided not to mention anything about Hugh Moss.

'We have been assured that you are far more valuable than Corso, whatever the Queen of Immortal Light may believe.'

'You have no idea what you're doing. You're… you're playing with fire!'

'According to our intelligence, you and the starship arrived here from the Nova Arctis system,' Roses said by way of reply. 'It's a system widely known to have recently turned nova, something that should be entirely impossible. Simple logic demands that these two events must be related.'

'Maybe it's just a coincidence,' Dakota replied.

Roses didn't answer.

'Fine,' she snapped. 'So you know that much. A completely stable star at the midpoint of its life ups and goes boom and, the next thing you know, here I am with a starship that's even older than the Shoal, carrying who-knows-what inside it. Did I do that? Is that what you're wondering? Do I have some kind of super-secret technology that can blow up stars? Maybe you're thinking about the power something like that could give to your Hive.' She raised one hand in the air. 'Maybe all I need to do is snap my fingers, and Night's End goes boom, with you and me in it, and both your precious Queens! How about that?'