Méridien (The Silver Ships Book 3) (25 page)

Each dark traveler would drop down to the beach, its weight settling into the soft sands. Hurriedly the females worked to open the hull. It was they who built the Swei Swee dwellings while the males hunted. Time had worked to diversify the species. The males, designed for speed in the hunt, had sharp, pointed claws for searching the endless waters. The females could process the silica and other minerals of the sands and cliffs, extruding a viscous substance that could dry as hard as diamond. Their claws were blunt, wider, and more powerful than the males, and functioned as digging tools and defense of the youngling hatchery.

It was the females the Nua’ll had prized when they observed them building the Swei Swee homes that glistened in the sunlight and had outlasted the cliffs on which they were built. In order to keep the females as slaves, the Nua’ll had taken entire hives—males, females, and hatchlings—forcing the cooperation of the species.

Each dark traveler emptied all but four of its occupants onto the beach and the Swei Swee scrambled for the protection of the shallow waters. Two elder females accompanied the First and Second aboard each dark traveler to reseal the shell. Then the dark traveler launched to join its brethren circling the world traveler.

The Swei Swee First examined the progress of the Star Hunters. With their youngling attached, they were still searching toward the world traveler. The leader used his star singer to call to each dark traveler left aboard the world traveler, hoping to speak to a Hive First. His fourth try was successful, and he delivered one of the most painful messages of his burdened life.

The Hive First who had responded to his leader’s call now left his dark traveler and scuttled up to the incubation chambers where the remaining Swei Swee waited. He relayed the leader’s message.

The eldest female whistled her orders, and the females began methodically dispatching the hatchlings, their blunt claws cleaving open the sacs, spilling the contents into the incubation pool. When every egg-young was destroyed, the females approached the males and raised their digging claws high and wide, exposing their vulnerable throats. Each female whistled her farewell and forgiveness of the male poised in front of her. When a female’s song ended, the male thrust his sharp, rending claws deep into the female’s throat, cutting through the breath-ways and the nerve stem behind it. The thrusts were quick and decisive. The females felt an impact of pressure, then their eyestalks retracted in a death reflex, and they sank into the pool to join their young.

The young males turned to their elders, and the ritual song was repeated until the last male, a First, was surrounded by carnage, the pool stained with the sacrifice of the People.

The last male whistled his farewell. It was heard only by him, but that was enough. He clambered up a bulkhead beam and launched himself at a support structure, intending to impale himself. He had hoped to pierce one or both of his hearts, but his aim was slightly off. The metal shaft penetrated his body from lower to upper carapace, pinning him and missing both his hearts. He would have no second chance to end his life. It would be hours before the First succumbed to his wounds. When his time finally came, the First would try to whistle his joy, but only a hiss would escape his breath-way. The thought was there, though. The Nua’ll held no more People captive aboard the world traveler. Come what may, the People would be free this day. They would fight for their freedom and die trying, if necessary. Under no circumstances would they remain slaves.

When the last dark traveler left the world below and the leader had given the Swei Swee aboard the world traveler sufficient time to complete his instructions, he ordered the three dark travelers with the egg-young to seek shelter.

The Firsts aboard the three hatchling-loaded dark travelers turned off their star singers as they had been instructed and headed for the beach, the rendezvous point. The three ships had room enough to land together on the beach. Immediately the shells were opened from inside by the females.

The Swei Swee scrambled from the shallows to unload the ships. The tide was low, and the People had been busy building a protective wall, soon to become a dome, with thin slots to allow fresh seawater to enter and circulate. Most males had been hauling chunks of coral and sandstone for the females, while younger males found small fish to keep the females fed. The bonding material produced by each female was used to cement the coral and stones together to build the wall. This was a temporary structure for the younglings. There was no use building a permanent structure if they would not be alive several days from now.

The wall would barely be ready for the rising tides generated by this world’s greater moon, but it wouldn’t matter. The males and females would form two concentric rings around the wall. The outer ring of males would defend against hunters. The inner ring of females, linking their digging arms together and with their smaller but bulkier bodies, would provide a breakwater to protect the egg sacs within from the pounding of the waves.

The First aboard the dark traveler that sheltered under the
Outward Bound
now called to his leader. The news he received of the rescue of three-fifths of the younglings was both a moment of joy and sadness. So many egg-young had been lost and 192 Swei Swee had gone with them to travel the endless waters, but the Nua’ll held no more sway over the People.

Both the Hive First and the Swei Swee First were mesmerized by the steady, relentless search of the Star Hunters toward the world traveler.

The leader questioned the Hive First. “Can the Star Hunters rend the world traveler?”

“This is unknown, Leader. Must they rend the world traveler?” the First asked.

“That is yet to be seen, First,” the leader whistled. “This is new to the People. We have no memories to aid us. We have found these creatures that wish to help us. We believe they wish us well. After what we have done against our masters, we will live or die based on who is the greater hunter.”

While they were conversing, the leader received reports from the dark travelers surrounding the world traveler. They had received orders to attack the oncoming quarry. He whistled the Nua’ll order to the People.

“First, should we sing of this to the Star Hunters?” the leader asked.

“How would we do that, Leader? What would convince them that we are not clever hunters meaning to flush them to us as we would prey?” the First replied.

The hive members had always relied on ancient memories to guide their actions, but nothing in their history provided aid in these circumstances. Suddenly the First had an idea, one born of desperation.

Alex, Andrea, and Tatia were staring at the holo-vid. The
Rêveur
’s icon glowed bright blue. It was followed close behind by a cluster of bright yellow icons. Each dark traveler had shot toward them at its top speed of 0.91c, guaranteed to intercept them, and at the last moment, the ships had curved around them and fell in behind. Each had performed their movement so effectively that Tatia had murmured, “A giant repulsing field … I’m convinced.”

“Or an extremely well-laid trap,” Andrea had added.

Alex had limited bridge rotations to the three of them and Edouard. In case this was a trap, one of them would have to make an instant decision and attempt to evade destruction. The dark travelers kept a distance of a few hundred thousand kilometers, but the separation afforded the
Rêveur
no real protection since the dark travelers could close that distance quickly.

Now the Nua’ll ship was merely hours away. Alex had refrained from pacing for days, attempting to present the image of a calm commander. The doors of the bridge way slid open and Renée walked onto the bridge, carrying a tray of hot thé and four cups. She glanced at the holo-vid, yellow icons glowing all around the blue icon of the
Rêveur
, and announced in a cheerful voice: “Who would like thé?”

Alex broke out in a strained laugh, the absurdity of her actions tickling him and releasing some of the tension. He accepted a cup of thé, kissing her lightly on the cheek. She winked at him and delivered a hot drink to each officer.

“The Nua’ll’s escorts are advancing, Admiral,” Julien announced.

Heads whipped around to the holo-vid and Alex enlarged the vid to focus on the space directly between the
Rêveur
and the prison ship. Watching every yellow icon separate from the world traveler, Andrea exclaimed, “All of them! The Nua’ll aren’t reserving any escorts.”

“I believe it’s all or nothing for the Nua’ll,” Alex responded. “They’re determined to overwhelm us and remove us once and for all. Remember, they’ve seen us on four different occasions and each time, we were the victor, destroying many of their craft the last two times.”

“Admiral, our dark traveler is uncovering,” Julien announced.

“Where’s he going, Julien?” Alex asked.

“One moment, Admiral,” Julien requested. Hearts beat faster, everyone expecting this might be the springing of the trap. “The dark traveler has slid forward along our hull.”

Julien slid the central vid screen up to clear the view of the bridge’s plex-crystal shield. The crew stared at the rear of their dark traveler. Ships in space kept hundreds of kilometers of separation between them when underway, except under special circumstances, certainly not a mere forty meters directly in front of a bow of a starship.

“Admiral, we’re receiving a message from our friend at the bow,” Julien said. “The First sends ‘Swei Swee plus Star Hunters’ over and over.”

Alex looked at Andrea and Tatia. They wore diametrically opposed expressions. Tatia was grinning; Andrea was frowning. Alex looking at Andrea and asked, “Do you think their ruse is just getting more elaborate?”

“That’s correct, Admiral. We have no proof of their willingness to fight on our side. Just some fancy flying,” she said, nodding toward the dark traveler ahead of them.

“Begging your pardon, Captain,” Tatia said, “but that doesn’t add up. Those dark travelers at our back can achieve 0.2c delta-V over us and easily destroy us. They don’t need any more ships.”

“Maybe they wish to capture us,” Andrea said.

“The only way that might happen, Captain,” Alex replied, “is if that world traveler has some sort of beam capable of tethering us, and we’ve seen no evidence of this. I believe the Swei Swee are using the excuse of our presence to make a break with their captors and put some distance between their dark travelers and that prison ship.”

“What about their hatchlings?” Renée asked. When no one answered her, she whispered a quiet “Oh.”

“I’m sure they have some sort of plan to free them,” Alex said, attempting to comfort Renée.

“If I might, Admiral,” Julien interjected. “Three Swei Swee ships exited the prison ship and temporarily joined the escorts. Then just before the escorts launched toward us, those same three ships dove for a beach location on Libre at the edge of the Clarion Seas.”

“The Swei Swee indicated eleven dark travelers were aboard the world traveler. Did more than three manage to exit,” Alex asked.

“Negative, Admiral.”

“Then if I was to guess, those three spirited away their hatchlings, and the rest of the Swei Swee aboard the world traveler are still at risk,” Alex said.

“Admiral,” Andrea said, “there’s still time to dive below the ecliptic, if we do so now. We can make our move before the bow or aft silver ships can catch us. If they follow, we can leave them floating in space.”

“And what would that do, Captain?” Tatia said. “All we would be doing is proving to the Swei Swee that their new allies are undependable.”

Alex watched his two officers stare at one another. The pressures of the past year had brought about subtle changes in both of them. Andrea had shouldered the responsibility of the ship’s operation with solid determination, but continued to shy away from the tough, strategic decisions. On the other hand, Tatia, who had always been planet-bound, had taken to the spacer role, and she had the inventive and intuitive thinking required of a senior officer.

“We stay the course, Captain,” Alex affirmed.

“Admiral,” Julien said, “interception with the Swei Swee to our bow occurs in 0.23 hours, 0.11 hours if they do not drop velocity before they reach us.”

As the chronometer counted down, Andrea and Renée took to the command chairs and kept their thoughts to themselves. Alex began a slow pace around the bridge, his hand on his lowered chin while he reviewed his decision for the hundredth time. He and Tatia nearly collided. She had been pacing in the opposite direction, deep in thought as well.

Tatia gave Alex a wry grin and sent,

Alex replied.

Julien sent privately, The briefest of pauses ensued and then Julien uttered these words to the bridge: “Admiral, they’re here.”

The Swei Swee First led the frontal force that bore down on the Star Hunters. On his orders, the dark travelers with him bent around the Star Hunter vessel when the distance closed to within 200 kilometers. The Swei Swee First opened his star singer to signal the Nua’ll that the energy on their shells failed when they approached the quarry. He sang his regrets.

Julien reported the bending of the dark travelers around their ship and their subsequent swing behind them. There was no one left between the
Rêveur
and the Nua’ll, who were a mere hour and a half away.

“Admiral, your orders?” Andrea asked.

Tatia asked the more pertinent question of “Do the Nua’ll have a weapon?”

“None of their actions indicate they do, but who knows,” Alex responded.

Andrea looked at him, incredulous at his comment. “You’re risking our lives on a ‘who knows’?”