Candidate (Selected Book 4) (58 page)

"Clover, give us a few minutes."

"What happened?" I asked quietly, once Clover was out of the room.

"She was ambushed."

"What?" I said. "Is she all right?"

"She's fine."

"Can I see her? Is she in sick bay?"

"Not that kind of an ambush. She miscalculated. She's young, and she miscalculated."

"Just tell me."

"Did you see the group of Octals here?"

"A four," I said. "A half Octal. They need another half Octal."

"Well, it turns out that's not entirely true. Octals like powers of two. 1, 2, 4, 8."

"Right. I know what powers of two are."

"Other than 1, they dislike odd numbers. They invited her for dinner. She accepted, because she knew the queen wouldn't want a five."

I grew numb. More numb.

"What happened?"

"I didn't know this was going to happen. The queen asked to borrow Claudia Gates." Claudia was one from this batch who had agreed to a willing relationship but hadn't been paired yet.

"And?"

"I didn't know Dark Skies was having dinner with them. You already told Claudia about the Octals, so she was all for it."

"That's four and two. That's not eight."

"Some Octal queens will do six. Dark Skies didn't know Claudia was there in another room, already deeply succumbed. The queen took her. Four and two. They can handle four and two."

I stared. "I'll kill her. I'll kill that queen. Give me a gas mask, and I'll kill her!"

"No, Andie," Jasmine said. "Listen to me. Dark Skies is happy."

"She didn't want this! She wanted to be queen."

"They all want to be queen, but only one in seven can be. She is going to be insanely happy."

"This is wrong, Jasmine. They drugged her. Get her back and let it wear off."

"It doesn't work that way for them. The queen sort of locks it in. I don't really understand it. I don't. But Dark Skies would never willingly leave her. They're gone, Andie."

"I didn't get to say goodbye. That's twice. Twice! The two women who actually wanted me, and they're both gone. And that bitch stole her! She had no fucking right."

"This is their biology, Andie. You and I can't understand it. But if Dark Skies could have tricked that queen, she would have. But the queen knew Dark Skies was young and didn't realize her danger, and I don't think I know any single Octal that could withstand a half Octal if she didn't see the danger coming."

I turned away. "I want to talk to her."

"Dark Skies."

"No. That bitch."

"No."

"Yes!" I spun back on her. "You set it up."

"No."

"Yes!" I screamed. "She stole my friend, and I'm going to give her a piece of my mind."

"No."

"Yes!" I said. "Do it! That bitch stole from me, Jasmine. She stole from you. Did she ask permission to steal Dark Skies from you? She stole from you, and we needed her. How are we supposed to do our jobs here without our best technician? And whom am I going to talk to when I'm mad at you? She stole from us. She stole from every human woman who comes through here. We needed Dark Skies. I needed my friend. We needed our coworker. These women needed an amazing tech, sweet and kind and so caring about what happened to them. Set it up."

"Please don't make me do this, Andie."

"Excuse me? Like you can't just say no four hundred times until I give up."

"There's a price."

"Fine. I'll pay it."

"No. She won't take the call unless I pay the price."

I looked down. "Is it a bad price?"

"It's a risk. It's a risk I don't want to take."

"You're not going to tell me."

"No, but she is."

"I don't understand."

"I know."

"Can you manage the risk?"

"I don't know."

I stood up. "I wish to go for a walk. May I have fifteen minutes? I can't decide if I can ask you to do this. I don't know the price. You have to decide."

"Go."

I nodded and was gone a moment later.

I headed to the arena. It was set up for our challenge, another capture event. The aliens loved capturing the humans. I wandered around for a few minutes, but then when the visor told me to head back, I let it show me the path.

I walked into the control room. Jasmine was alone.

"Will you let me talk to her?"

"Yes."

"Thank you."

Fifteen seconds later my visor automatically accepted a call, and I was staring at an Octal queen.

"Andromeda Hayes," she said in greeting. "Please call me Smooth Seas."

"You're the bitch that stole my friend."

"I am the Octal queen that has returned your friend into the loving embrace of her kind."

"Pretty words. I needed her. She was one of few friends I have here. We needed her. She was exceedingly good at her job, and what we do was already hard. These women needed her, because she cared, because she helped to ensure we made good matches. The Federation of Allied Planets needed her, because without someone like Dark Skies helping us, fewer of you will have good matches. You have stolen something precious from all of us."

"This was inevitable. She was weak and alone. One of us was going to come for her eventually. And she would have lost."

"She wasn't weak! She's amazing. Don't say she's weak!"

"She is your friend, Andromeda Hayes."

"You're a bitch!"

"No. I am an Octal queen, and Dark Skies is now part of my family. She loves me, and I love her."

"Right. That's why you ruined her life. That's why you took her from me."

"She was not yours to keep, Andromeda Hayes. She told me about you. She told me about your time with her."

"You made her tell."

"She asked a favor, and I am granting it."

"What favor?"

"Jasmine Brighteyes has something for you. You must decide."

And then Jasmine was holding something to me, a small gas mask. I stared at it for a moment, then took it from her, still staring at it.

"This is yours," I said slowly.

"It is," she said. "If you breathe, you will become mine."

"That's not happening."

"You would be with Dark Skies for the rest of your days."

"You mean we would both worship you."

"Jasmine Brighteyes has two of those, and there is one more woman there I would take. I would have a full octal. Four and one and one and one and one."

"Excuse me?"

"Four octal female. One octal male. One and one and one human females. The human I want spent a night with me, and she will consent. Breathe, and you are mine. Dark Skies still produces pheromones, the same she always produced, but now they strengthen my family. I will let the two of you play. Not every night, but quite often. When we sleep, you would sleep together, here with me. You would be together, here with all of us. You would love me. I would love you. But I would also let you love Dark Skies, and for her to love you. You will be insanely happy."

"Why are you doing this?"

"I wanted you, but Jasmine Brighteyes wouldn't let me have you."

"So you took Dark Skies instead?"

"She needed to come home, Andromeda Hayes. I came to take both of you. She couldn't build an Octal of all humans. And if she built a partial Octal, she would lose it again."

"It should have been her decision."

"That is the human way. This is the Octal way. She will be happy. I am a good queen. I am good to my family. I would be good to you. Breathe, and you will never be sad again. You will forever be loved. You will love me, and you will love Dark Skies. And in time, you will love the daughter I put into you, and perhaps another daughter after her, but we do not know."

"Do you know what you did to us here?"

"Jasmine Brighteyes is the most competent Catseye in human space. This is barely a blip of trouble for her."

"If she's the most competent, why is she here instead of managing the space station? That has to be a lot harder."

"That is
easy
," she said. "I could do it. It is all logistics, but those are
easy
. No, what happens there, that is what is hard. And she is the best."

I looked at Jasmine. She had her back to me, but her tentacles were barely contained, wrapped around her, but I could see them quivering.

I looked at the inhaler, a little face mask with a small bottle attached to it.

"What happens?"

"If you breathe? It is very concentrated. You will come to me. I have a jumper waiting. Jasmine Brighteyes will collect the other human, and she will breathe. Then the two of you will come to me and be mine. I will take you first, of course, because I must seal what I start, and the human who comes with you. And then we will be eight."

I stared at it.

"You would make my future decisions."

"You would be happy."

"I would be devoted to the woman who stole from me. I would be devoted to the woman who ambushed my friend. And maybe Jasmine will fix the shortage, but we have 43 women who are in the middle of their challenges, and their challenges will suffer. And we have 64 more coming, and 64 more, and 64 more, and how long will it take before we have someone as good as Dark Skies is? How soon? How many women will pay the price because you saw something you wanted, and you took it without care for what you have done."

I paused. "Please don't abuse her for my words."

"I treat my family well, Andromeda Hayes. I am sorry you will not join us, and I am sorry for your pain."

And then she was gone.

Jasmine turned to me. I held out the inhaler.

"Were you tempted?" she asked.

"No. She's a fucking bitch. She doesn't even care who she hurt. She saw something she wanted, and she took it without an apologetic look backwards."

Jasmine said nothing. I breathed heavily for a minute then asked quietly, "Can you make her suffer?"

"I would be hurting Dark Skies if I did, Andromeda. I won't do that. I'm sorry."

I turned away, staring at the screens. "Our event is way behind schedule, and now we're short handed."

"I told the council we are slowing to a four-week cycle until our staffing issues are resolved."

I laughed although somewhat raggedly. "That will light a fire."

She stepped up behind me and wrapped me in tentacles. "I need you now more than ever."

"I don't know a tenth of what she did."

"I know, but Bay does. I need you to take the full duties of a senior event coordinator, at least as long as you're here."

"I'm not ready."

"You're going to have to be."

I turned around inside the ring she formed around me, looking up into her eyes. "Fine. But I want a raise and benefits."

"What benefits? You already have full health care and the most amazing pension plan imaginable. And free room and board besides. You even get a clothing allowance."

"Ha. Funny. Have you been paying me or not?"

"Yes, your old salary, and your bills get paid."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. And income from us isn't taxed by any government. So that's a rather significant raise for you."

"Okay, skip the raise. But you should give me something, even if it's just a token."

"How about a blanket."

"Screw the damned blanket. Come on, Administrator. Give me
something
."

"I've got this inhaler you can have."

"You're funny. You're really not going to give me anything?"

That was when Clover walked back in. I turned to her. "Tell her if she's making me do Bay's job and my job besides so that Bay can do Dark Skies job because that bitch stole from us, tell her she has to give me
something
."

Clover held out a wooden box. "Maybe this will do."

"That's a visor box." I tapped mine. "She gave me one weeks ago."

"Ah, but this is a much, much better model," Jasmine says. "And it has a special ability."

"Oh?"

"It can make phone calls."

"My current one can make phone calls."

"To Minnesota?"

I spun back to her. "Are you serious?"

"You know what you can say and what you can't. Yes, I'm serious."

"You had this planned already."

"Of course I did. I wanted to see if you asked for something smaller."

"I thought you'd give me some art for my wall or something."

"I did." She gestured. "Improved version, remember?"