A Larger Universe (45 page)

Tommy returned to the command chair.  "Yes, Ull, I am
still here."

"You continue to defy the council's will," Ull
said.  "Have we returned to transit?"

"I invite you to return to the bridge and find out for
yourself," Tommy said.

He could hear an animal snarl in her voice.  "Insolent
human, this ship will be cleansed of you once and for all."

Tommy turned from the intercom to the gathered humans. 
"I think she means to send warriors to remove us from here.  I ask you
again, are you prepared to fight?"

A ragged chorus of "Yes, Tommy!" echoed through
the bridge.

He turned to the Nesu and said in the lords' language,
"Lord Ull plans to stop what we are doing.  Where do you stand in
this?"

The Nesu gazed back and forth at each other, their black and
brown muzzles bobbing.  Finally, Cauth replied, "I made my choice when I
stayed on the bridge.  I believe we all did."

"Yes, Master Tommy," the others responded.

He turned to the humans.  "Let's get ready."

Getting ready consisted of distributing three of the
directed beam controllers and teaching the recipients how to use them.  He
offered one to Fen, but Fen refused.  He preferred to fight in his usual way.

Fifty warriors arrived simultaneously from all the elevators
on the deck, with Lito and Patuek leading the charge of ten warriors, batons in
hand, from the nearest.  Their war cry rang off of the curved roof. 

They had traveled five long strides when Fhele stepped
forward and raised her arm. 

A sharp crack echoed around the room, and Patuek's severed
head bounced off the deck, his neck spurting blood toward the dome as his body
took two more steps before collapsing. 

Sisle raised her arm.  Another sharp crack, and Lito became
a bloody mess on the deck. 

Some of the following warriors slipped in the blood and
skidded to their backs.  Two jumped over the headless trunks and tried to
continue.  Their bodies joined those of Lito and Patuek.  The remainder halted
as if they had run into an invisible wall.

Tommy stepped between Sisle and Fhele.  "Lord Ull sent
you here to kill me so that everyone on this ship might die together, as the
council decreed."

Fen moved next to Tommy.  "Master Tommy tells the
truth.  The Kadiil are attacking us.  Lord Ull herself told me to go die with
my children.  When Tommy continued to resist the Kadiil and the will of the
council, they sent you to stop him.  If you do as Lord Ull says, you and your
children will die today."

One of the warriors exclaimed, "Fen's neck!  His collar
is gone!"

"The artisans are right!” another voice shouted.  “Lord
Tommy is the One!”

A few of the warriors fell to their knees.  The remainder
continued standing, some with set expressions on their faces, while others
seemed confused.

One of those kneeling said, "Free us, Lord Tommy."

If I'm ever going to, now is the time to take advantage
of all those rumors!

He looked from the warriors to the blood on the floor.  That
could have been his blood.  The smell made his stomach churn.  Every one of
these men had trained for extreme violence against other human beings.  Ull
sent them here to kill him, and they might still try.  For five hundred years,
the threat of the collar had bound them.  Could he risk releasing them all? 

But I must!  Any adult Nesu could pull her cylinder from
her pouch, turn the end two clicks, and detonate every armed collar on the
ship.
 

"I can remove your collars, and I will on one of three
conditions," Tommy said. 

He paused and let the silence stretch for a moment. 
"Either one of these women or Fen vouches for you, or," he let that
sink in for a moment, "you perform some task that I will assign to test
your sincerity, or," another moment of silence, "we arrive at Earth. 
Everyone else will be freed of their collar when we land on Earth.  Until then
it will stay on your neck.” 

The pause was longer this time.  “If we do remove your
collar, and you make me believe that was a mistake, it will be replaced around
your neck."

He turned abruptly away from the warriors.  "Fhele,
hold the warriors here.  Sisle and Fen, I need to talk with you
privately."

He led them to the other side of the bridge.  "We must
disarm all of the collars.  One nervous Nesu could kill nine tenths of
you."

Even a warrior can be frightened
, Tommy thought,
seeing the expression crossing Fen's face.

"Sisle, you know the procedure.  Show Fen.  Get the
other women to help.  Figure out some way to disarm the collars on warriors and
women we don't trust without their knowing it.  And hurry.  We don't have much
time before Ull starts wondering what's happening.  And let me know when you're
done.  One more thing:  I hid a few more of those cylinders under the stairs to
the bridge sub-deck and under the ladder below the targeting room.  Send
someone down to get them.  I'll have Seth show whomever you send to the
targeting room where they are."

When they returned to the warriors, Tommy took a deep
breath.

Time to make it happen.  Time to try to save all their
lives.

"Sisle, you and Fen talk with the women and decide who
among these warriors can be trusted without their collar.  Lock up the rest of
them.  Use the trusted group to convert, or lockup," he felt his stomach
turn sour even as his face hardened, "or kill the rest of the warriors and
warrior women.  It would be best if that were done with no further deaths, but
I want no more attacks on the bridge.  We have work to do."

He looked again at what had been four human beings and
clamped down hard on the back of his throat.  "Who's responsible for
cleaning up dead bodies?" he asked.

#   #   #

The gravity monitor displayed the outlines of at least one
hundred Kadiil ships floating near
The People's Fist
. 

The crew had quit counting after thirty-five.  The arrival
rate had dropped off, but remained one almost every ten minutes.

Each new blip on the screen fascinated its watchers, who now
included all of the guildmasters and master farmers.  Tommy had called them all
to the bridge, and even those who had worked here before, as journeymen and
masters making repairs, were confused by what they were seeing.  The others,
including the farmers, stood with blank expressions in the back of the crowd.

Tommy hadn't told them why they were here.  Before he could
do that, he waited for the return of Sisle and Fen from the warrior decks and
word that the situation had stabilized. 

Ull had called once, and Tommy had gestured everyone to
silence.  When no one answered, she clicked off.  Tommy hoped he had convinced
her that the bridge had been cleared as ordered, and she had gone back to
waiting for death to strike. 

She must think we're in transit.  More time for her to
have her last swim.  This whole situation could have turned out differently if
the council had been participating instead of hiding in their ponds.  It still
might, if even one of the adults steps out of her chamber and decides to kill
the warriors before we disarm the collars.

The sound of an elevator arriving sent his hand to the
cylinder in his pocket.

Sisle's shout carried above the crowd.  "Tommy, it's
done!" 

The guildmasters parted to allow her through.  A pushy
warrior woman made them nervous, although she was smaller than most and Tommy
had introduced her.

"Everyone's collar is taken care of."  She looked
in his eyes.  "We don't have that threat anymore.  And Fen remembered
something you missed.  Firearms are stored in various places on the ship. 
Normally, they are only used on-planet.  Fen is giving a few to those we trust
most," she slapped the holster attached to her belt, "and locking the
remainder away from the Council in case they try to retake the ship."

This blunt statement brought a startled gasp from several of
the guildmasters.

Tommy turned to the human crowd.  "Yes, you heard
right.  Some of the warrior women, and now some of the warriors, along with a
few of the younger Nesu," he gestured at Cauth, Ulsu, San and Suna still
sitting at their consoles, "and I have taken over the ship."  He
waited for the uproar to die down.  "We had to.  What you are watching on
the monitor are Kadiil ships intent on destroying us.  The Nesu decided to let
them, and I couldn't allow that.  Not if I could stop them, and, so far, we
have." 
Though I don't know how we're ever going to leave here
.

"We need your help and the help of your artisans and
farmers to save the ship and all our lives."

The first Jack's distinctive twang lifted over the murmuring
of other voices.  "And will we be returning to Earth, Master Tommy?"

"We will be if we can get past the Kadiil!" Tommy
shouted.

Jack's triumphant, "We told you he’s the one!"
brought instant silence, and then everyone dropped to his knees.

This is getting old.
  "Everyone on your feet!  I
need your help, not your obedience.  Will you help us?"

A loud cheer followed by a louder "Yes!"
reverberated around the bridge.

"Good!” Tommy said.  “Come closer.  Here's what I
need."

They spent the next hour organizing the digging of a passage
to the bore containing
My Flowing Streams
. 

The Kadiil will continue to try to destroy the ship,
wherever it went and regardless of cost.  What knowledge could be so important,
and who would be willing to expend so much to stop its spread? 

Something or someone in one of those drifting ships could
answer my questions.

When the digging was underway, Tommy went to see Fen.

"Did anyone vouch for Leegh's personal guards?"
Tommy asked.

"No, we had to lock up all six of them.  But each swore
he wanted to join us."

"I may need Leegh's help.  No, I'm sure I will.  Pick
two of her guards who are the least risk.  Tell them we'll remove their collars
if they bring Leegh, by force if necessary, to the bridge."

Fen laughed.  "That should terrify them.  Putting your
hands on a lord merits an immediate death sentence, even if she’s gone
crazy."

"Not anymore," Tommy said.  "And that brings
up an important issue:  Are you guarding the entrances to the Nesu chambers? 
Can you keep the Nesu under control while we try to solve this?"

"We are guarding every door, but lifelong discipline
will be difficult to overcome."

"Just do your best," Tommy said.

#   #   #

Sweat poured from the chalk white faces of the two warriors
supporting Leegh.  At the sight of the four Nesu still on the bridge, one of
them seemed ready to turn and run.  Something had soaked the other's tunic with
more than sweat. 
Sure, someone would have had to pull Leegh out of the
water.  He would be the bravest, wouldn't he?

Tommy pulled an extra chair up to the gravity monitor.  "Put
her here, then turn around.  You've done your part." 

Leegh slumped in her chair, and the warriors’ collars hit
the floor, one after the other. 

With the warriors gone, Tommy pulled up another chair and
held Leegh's head toward the monitor.  He waited for another wormhole signature
followed by those of a Kadiil ship and black hole initiation.  Leegh's neck
muscles tensed, then relaxed when the black hole signature disappeared.

"Leegh, you do recognize what you are seeing!  Those
other Kadiil ships on the monitor arrived the same way.  They are all
dead!"

She jerked her head from Tommy's hands and leaned toward the
monitor.  "Dead?  You have found some way to defeat the Kadiil?"  She
looked back toward Tommy and pulled herself more erect in the chair.  "How?"

"In a way, yes, but not really.  If you will help me,
maybe we can find a way.  We have a chance to, anyway."

She sat up even straighter.  "Tell me!"

As her despair lifted, Leegh reacted to his telling her he
had taken over the ship by flexing her claws and giving a low whistle.

"What do you mean to do with us?” she asked.  “Are you
holding The People hostage for my help?"

"I am holding The People hostage because the council
decided to commit mass suicide.  I could not allow that.  What do I mean to
do?  If we get out of this alive, we will take The People anywhere they want to
go, but without their human slaves.  Otherwise, they are free to live in their
lakes and ponds until we all die together, which is what your council wanted in
the first place."

"We will be able to leave this place with our lives
only if we defeat the Kadiil,” Leegh said.  “You believed before that was
impossible.  What has changed your mind?"

"I have a hope, not certainty," Tommy said. 
"The hope is that an examination of one of those dead ships will give us
the information we need to fight them." 

Tommy stood abruptly from his chair. 

"Ull would have had me lie in my bunk until the end
came.  I refuse."  He leaned toward Leegh and said, "Leegh, I have
seen your work.  Your hobby, you call it.  Your grasp of mathematics and
physics will make this possible, if anything will.  I need your help.  The
People need your help."

"What of the small dimensional tunnels we detected
inside the Kadiil ships?" Leegh asked.  "Whatever you do will be
reported somewhere.  Whatever weapon you create, they will counter."

"Except for the one in our drive, the dimensional
tunnels are gone," Tommy said.  "They disappear in the Kadiil ships
when they die."

Leegh's gaze went from Tommy to the monitor and back again. 
"No one has ever seen the inside of a Kadiil ship," she mused. 
"No one has ever seen a Kadiil.  Perhaps we do have a chance if we can get
inside one of those ships.  A better chance than anyone has ever had before,
anyway."