Beyond Death (Perimeter Defense Book #2) (24 page)

"I'll wind it back a bit and show exactly what you should be looking at," the Chameleon wound the clip back for thirty seconds, then played it again at a slower rate. "Everyone was busy with the arrest, and didn't see the main thing: no one came out of the shuttle from
Umoyge-7
. We checked the shuttle later and it was empty. There was no pilot inside. But someone had been piloting the shuttle, and clearly manually. And now look here!"

A human figure appeared from behind the Iseyek shuttle. It stood for a few seconds, watched the traitors get detained, but did not interfere, and set off at a quick pace to one of the side doors."

"Who is that? Why did they arrive on a Swarm ship?" I had no idea what was going on.

"That is not all, Prince Georg. Here is the security footage from the hallway he went down. Watch it in synch with the video from the hall.

The screen split in two: one half was showing the shuttle hangar, and the other was showing video from another camera. First the stranger pulled at the door handle and pulled the door toward himself. At the same time, the door to the hallway also opened. But... no one went through!!!

"I have no idea what's going on," I admitted. "Who was that, and where did he go?"

"On
Umoyge-7
, they confirmed that the shuttle they sent to the flagship had only their captain on it. Here is a hologram of him. And we already have data from our tactics officers showing that the shuttle's route from
Umoyge-7
to
Joan the Fatty
never deviated from the assigned path, nor did it attach to any other ships."

I looked at the three-dimensional image of the captain of
Umoyge-7
. The centipede was approximately ten feet tall, a typical Gamma Iseyek. There was no doubt about it. But why then did another species arrive?

"It's an Arite!" A bizarre creaking voice rang out over my ear. I even shook in surprise and turned to the huge, normally quiet Alpha Iseyek security guard.

"Deimos, what do you know about the Arites? I need all the information you have!

The ten-foot-tall praying mantis wriggled his mandibles, carefully speaking the following words:

"I to fight with Arites on Arite-V, Arite-VIII, the moons of the eighth planet and on Swarm shshships. That is just how Arite to look. To be different always. Never to understand. If to kill, Arite die like Iseyek. But is Arite. Very hard to fight Arites. Very many losss. Is always Swarm confuse and to fight to Swarm."

"My Prince, look at me, but turn slowly and naturally."

Florianna's words were so strange and intriguing that I did as she said. What's wrong? Everything looked normal. The paralyzed girl was sitting in a black robe in the armchair and her minions were around her. Wait a second! Since when did Flora have five Beta Iseyeks? There were only four!

"The fake is standing behind me to the left," the Truth Seeker said.

As if nothing had happened, I continued to discuss the footage of the Iseyek shuttle's arrival, and then, without changing intonation, in a tranquil voice, told the room what the paralyzed girl had said. Phobos and Deimos reacted even faster than the Chameleons. In the space of a second, they closed the gap to the enemy, attacked it with their terrifying upper appendages and stuck it through with all of their four razor-sharp chitin blades.

There was no blood. The Beta Iseyek's figure suddenly dissolved and an off-white cloud escaped into the ventilation grate on the wall.

"It's gone!" Deimos stated with vexation. "He to can to become any being on
Joan the Fatty
, and systems not to understand different. Any passs, any marking to copy, to trick sssensors. Tricky beassst."

"How did the Swarm deal with Arites if one made it on a starship?" I wondered to Deimos, leaning on the Iseyek's two-hundred-year experience in the issue.

"Swarm to explode all these ship to know Arite is to dead. To let air out of all section right away is mean less victim in end. Arite is not to live in ssspace vacuum."

"No, that won't work in our situation," I laughed nervously. "People, and Chameleons are also quite bad at living in a vacuum. All the same, how impudent of him to come listen to us talk about him!"

"My Prince, that is not true! I felt his emotions and fragments of thoughts. The Arite is very scared and desperate. He was used to hiding among the Iseyek and has learned to do a fairly good job of copying them, but the Arite hasn't come close with people before, and is not sure of its abilities to obtain legal status in our society. But suddenly, at complete random, the Arite detected a room with a few Iseyek in it. He took advantage of the circumstances when you were looking in the other direction. He was trying to find a legal position to occupy in society, but was found out. Now the Arite is trying to hide in the ventilation shafts and is seriously afraid that us humans will try to flush him out with flamethrowers."

"Flamethrowers? Wait, would that work? We won't singe the whole cruiser up that way?"

"The Arite is used to the Swarm's categorical way of thinking. One ship going down would not stop the Iseyek. But I don't see why we should catch it if it isn't a threat to us. In fact, I would say it is the other way around. My Truth Seeker's instinct is just yelling that we simply must establish contact with the Arite."

"Alright, Flora. Everyone else, listen to the Truth Seeker's advice, and mine as well: there is no reason to capture the Arite. It has no desire to harm us. If it appears and tries to contact you, engage it in conversation and send it to me. And also, not a word is to leave this room about the Arite being on
Joan the Fatty
or any other ship for that matter. The Iseyek will be much too afraid of it, and the insects' method of fighting these beings is too radical. They would have my flagship destroyed just in case."

The Arite was seen at least another three times over the following few hours. First, it came to Bionica in the body of... Bionica herself, but realized by the android's reaction that it's attempt at masking hadn't worked and hurried to retreat. After that, it came as a bearded mechanic in a greasy jumpsuit who strolled into the women's bathroom, which clearly significantly lowered its faith in its own ability to blend in in human society. And, finally, the Arite came right to me. I had returned to my cabin and noticed that Princess Astra was sleeping peacefully in my bed... for some reason in duplicate.

"Have you no shame?” I asked in a deliberately threatening tone. "Arite, is a whole cruiser not enough room for you to live? What made you come to my room exactly?"

One of the Princesses suddenly opened her eyes and stood from the bed. I took a step back, thinking to myself that this was a tense situation. I had no weapon on me, so how I could defend myself against this extraterrestrial being was totally unclear. Nonetheless, I continued to follow my line and spoke forcefully:

"If you want to live on my ship, you follow simple rules: never copy me, Astra or her paralyzed sister. The captains and admirals are also off limits. And basically don't get in our way. We have a serious battle ahead of us!"

The Princess suddenly laughed provocatively and began spinning in a dance, showing off her green hair and nude, silver-patterned body. I felt exceptionally stupid: what if the thing in front of me was the actual Princess and not a copy? But I had not been wrong: the dancing Astra dissolved into a white cloud and left the cabin a few seconds later into the main hall, now in the form of an angry old lady from the housekeeping department, and all she was wearing was a bathing cap on her head and a bath towel over her shoulders. On the scalloped, cellulite-laden buttocks of the plant manager, there was a faded tattoo shaped like a colorful butterfly overwritten with a sweeping inscription: "Miss College!"

Despite the strained nature of the situation, I laughed and shook my head. The Arite would have to learn and learn in order not to unmask itself so stupidly in human company.

* * *

In a departure from recent battles, this time, there were no signs of happiness in any crew members. All staff officers and ship captains recognized perfectly how difficult the forthcoming battle in the Lobj system would be.

"Five hundred miles to the enemy. Multiple targets. Three hundred seven Alien ships detected on radar. Eight
Behemoths
, sixteen
Sledgehammers
, eleven
Chainsaws
, twelve
Ascetics
, and sixteen
Hermits
. All the rest are
Meteors
."

I reattached my microphone so it sat more comfortably, and said:

"All ships, attention! This is the Sector Eight Fleet's next serious exam. Our forces are approximately even, so we'll have to really put effort into this to show the whole galaxy that it isn't for nothing that we are known as Alien killers. Use formation number seven. First, jump toward the sun and hold distance from the
Behemoths
at no less than two hundred fifty miles. Battleships, head away from the enemy. Squeeze your thrusters for all they're worth. Heavies, same speed as the battleships. Antisupport and electros, stay thirty behind the heavy group. Two wings of
Pyros
will set up receivers on both sides of the enemy at thirty miles’ distance. If the
Meteors
come out to you, frigates are not to engage in combat. Warp out to our heavies.
Tria
, you'll be going with the electros for now. Three
Safas
jump out in front at full speed. You'll go three hundred, six hundred, and nine hundred in front of the fleet."

"Approximately equal forces?" Nicole laughed sadly, looking over the long list of enemy starships shown on the monitor, making sure to draw my attention to the flashing red words that had been brought up on screen by the tactical computer: "Victory impossible! Retreat strongly recommended!"

I turned off my microphone, and said to my assistant:

"Do you think it would be better to tell these people who put their trust in me that your computer thinks we have no chance and are doomed? Turn that automatic victory chance calculation off. I did so long ago. That stupid hunk of metal almost always writes that victory is impossible. If the enemy is just gonna stay passive around the
Behemoths
, we'll just charge our drives and go out to a spot in a few minutes. If they take any action, some options arise as to how we can pluck these ships' feathers."

“WHY ARE YOU RESISTING? IT IS FUTILE. WE ARE STILL STRONGER.”

Ow! A voice rang out in my head like an alarm bell. I waved it off, calming Nicole, who was looking at me in fear, and called the Truth Seeker.

"Flora, I need mental protection from you right now. These creatures are trying to control my mind. So, the woman in the medical wing isn't crazy. The voices are real."

"I'll try. But it’s basically just a really weird situation, Prince. Miya left excellent protection. They can speak with your Highness, but no one can make you do anything."

"
STOP THE FLEET AND RETURN THE CAPTURED SHIP. IF YOU DO SO, WE WILL ALLOW YOUR SHIP TO AVOID DEATH, BUT ONLY YOURS
."

Despite the booming voice in my head, I started just cracking up. They had used their secret ability, but it turned out they weren't able to make me obey. Well then, to hell with you, forget about us returning trophies and capitulating voluntarily!

"I am ready, Crown Prince. No one but me is now able to communicate with you mentally."

"Thank you, Florianna! I owe you a chocolate! Now we can really get to work!"

The enemy had not budged forward, clearly having learned from previous battles but, all the same, had begun showing signs of activity. All the
Behemoths
had released hundreds of drones, and the
Meteors
had gone into action, but for now they were just guarding the battleships. Meanwhile, the Alien cruisers and destroyers started picking up speed and set off to chase my fleet down after a few minutes of sitting still. Ugh, if only we could have a couple
Surprises
on the battlefield... Oh well, it’s no use crying over spilled milk. According to our calculations, the bombers were going to reach the Lobj system in six minutes.

"Why aren't the
Behemoths
going in front?" Nicole asked me.

"There's no reason to. They're slow buggers, so they'll never catch us anyway. They're gonna warp out to the quicker ships after they get closer to our fleet."

"And our ships will jump forward to the
Safas
, bringing the distance back up?" the girl hazarded.

"That's right. We definitely don't want these eight
Behemoths
getting too close. They'd reduce our fleet to dust in a couple minutes' time. By the way, the enemy's destroyers will enter the combat zone soon. Nicole, assign targets: three of our heavy cruisers and one battleship for every one of their
Ascetics
. Everyone else should sit it out. There's no way they'll reach us. They are to shoot only in a volley on command. Immediately after firing, all the ships should jump out to
Safa-3
. Attention, stand by. Fire!"