Laura Jo Phillips (40 page)

Chapter
41

Summer turned at the sound of approaching footsteps and was happy to see Darleen hurrying towards her, Lio ambling along in her wake.  Summer bent down to wipe the katana’s blade on William’s pants, then sheathed it before turning to Darleen for a relieved hug. 

“I can’t believe you did that,” Darleen said.

“Neither can I,” Summer admitted.  “But its done.  All we have to do now is call Maxim and the others, and then we can release the prisoners.” 

She heard a noise behind her and turned to see the most amazingly beautiful being she had ever laid eyes on.  He was tall, lean, broad shouldered and graceful as he walked into the courtyard and stopped a dozen feet away from them.  His skin was white, and sparkled brightly in the sun as he moved.  His hair was long and golden and flowed gently around his shoulders, and his smile was so perfectly gorgeous it was hard to tear her eyes away from it.  But the more she looked, the more she realized there were little things wrong.  The golden hair was mussed and snarled, causing a huge clump of it to hit him in the cheek as it flowed forward every few seconds.  His shirt was buttoned incorrectly, and one eyelid twitched constantly.

Summer took in all of this in a flash, going from shock at the man’s beauty to suspicion, then wariness all in the space of a second.  She reached for her katana, but the newcomer was faster.  He raised one hand and shot Darleen with a hand laser, hitting her in the leg.  Darleen fell to the ground at Summer’s feet with a short yelp of pain. 

“Do not move again or I will be forced to kill your friend,” the man warned her. 

Summer released the katana, and the man smiled.  “You are smart for a human,” he said.  “I am Za-Linq, your new master now that William is dead.  I am sure that we will have no trouble reselling you so long as you behave yourself and don’t force me to damage you.”

Summer made no move, though she was thinking furiously. 

“Good human,” Za-Linq said as though she had agreed to obey him.  He then turned to look at Lio.  “Now, Lio, before I take my leave, I would like you to explain to me how you thought you could get away with betraying me the way you betrayed Za-Queg.”

Summer sent a silent command to Lio’s Controller, directing him to answer the question truthfully, but in as many words as possible.  As Lio began talking, Summer focused on the Xanti.  From the moment her initial shock had worn off at his unexpected appearance, she sensed that the being before her was more machine than anything else.  Perhaps she could do some damage to it while it was occupied with Lio.

She reached carefully for the machine, using a light touch, and was pleased to discover that it was bio-mechanical.  Were the Xanti even living organisms? she wondered as she probed the body carefully, searching for its main processing center.  After a few moments, she realized that there didn’t seem to be one.  This was little more than a robotic shell.  If that was true, where did it get its orders from, she wondered.  How did it speak and move?

Summer pondered the question as she began shutting down systems within the bio-mechanical shell. 

This one looks like a limb movement translator.  Off it went.  Life support regulation.  Off.  Communications.  Off. 

She wasn’t always sure what it was she was shutting down, but she figured that even hit or miss, she would eventually shut down something of importance that would effect the Xanti’s ability to control the thing.

Navigation.  Offline.  Was that a processor for atmosphere exchange?  Shut that puppy down
.

“You are not making any sense, Lio,” the Xanti was saying.  “Not that it really matters I suppose.  All that matters is that I win.  Now, I will kill you, and the extra female, and take my
berezi
.”

Summer paused when she discovered a set of functions that would not allow a full shut down.  She searched for a few moments and smiled inwardly when she found alternate methods of cutting them off.

Internal emergency lighting system.  Disable.  Emergency breathing apparatus.  Locked out for maintenance.  Automatic Perimeter Defense System.  Frozen due to proximity to Ruling Queen.

Ruling Queen? she wondered as she continued shutting down anything and everything she could find. 

For the first time in days, Za-Linq felt calm.  He had the
berezi,
Lio was about to be dead for certain, and all in time to meet Xaqana-Ti’s deadline.  That William was dead was a bonus that Xaqana-Ti would enjoy, as it meant she could sell the
berezi
to the Brethren a second time. 

He pointed the gun at Lio and started to pull the trigger when suddenly his hand stopped responding to his commands.  He looked down at it and tried again to pull the trigger, but the hand would not obey him.  Za-Linq growled softly.  He had just performed the routine maintenance on his
makina
a few days earlier.  There was no reason for the hand to stop functioning.  He tried to lift his other hand in order to operate the gun with it instead, only to discover that neither hand would move.     

Za-Linq was so focused on the problem of getting his limbs to respond to his commands that it took him a moment to realize that his air intake system had ceased to function.  He hit the switch to activate the self-contained emergency air system and froze in fear when nothing happened.  He hit it again.  Still nothing.

By this time he was beginning to see spots before his eyes and he knew that if he did not get air soon, he would lose consciousness, and then he would die.  In a panic, he hit the emergency evacuation switch and again nothing happened.  Za-Linq scrambled around, his vision nearly gone now, searching for the manual evac mechanism.  He caught it mostly by accident and pushed on it with all of his remaining strength, grateful for the cool, fresh air that filled his lungs as he tumbled to the ground.

Summer watched the Xanti carefully as it struggled to move, saw the beginnings of panic come over its glittery face.  Then nothing.  The Xanti stood there, apparently frozen in place for several long moments.  Summer continued to seek out and shut down as many different components as she could find within the mechanical shell, her worry growing as the thing continued to stand motionless.

Suddenly there was movement beneath the Xanti’s shirt in the area of its chest.  A small movement at first, then a larger one as something seemed to be pressing out against the fabric  The shirt ripped with a harsh tearing noise and two doors popped out, followed by a large, black object which tumbled out through the opening and onto the ground. 

Summer gasped, horrified by the sight of the thing lying on its back in the dirt at the Xanti’s feet.  It was black, shiny, and segmented into three distinct sections with ten long, spindly legs, five on each side.  It had big red eyes, wide glistening mandibles and a long stinger on its back end.  It was, without doubt, the biggest, ugliest spider Summer had ever seen in her life.  She shuddered with revulsion as she watched it wriggling its legs in an effort to flip itself over.

Summer reached down and grabbed hold of Darleen’s hand, yanking her to her feet without taking her eyes off of the huge spider.  Instinct told her to get away from the thing, and she meant to obey it.  Darleen evidently had the same instincts because she was up on her feet and moving backwards as fast as she could in spite of the injury to her leg. 

Suddenly the spider managed to flip itself over.  It turned around to face them, standing on the tips of its ten legs.  Summer and Darleen froze.  As ugly as the thing was, they didn’t dare take their eyes off of it for a moment.  It rose up, its legs straightening as it got higher and higher, then it lowered itself, bending its legs till its belly almost touched the ground, then up again in a slow, rhythmic motion.  Then it reared up on its back two legs, its remaining legs held stiffly in front of it.  It looked at Summer and Darleen with its bright red eyes for a long moment, and Summer’s mouth went dry with fear.  Then it turned its gaze on Lio.  With a high pitched squeal of fury, the spider dropped to all ten legs and leapt for Lio.  Summer instantly ordered Lio’s Controller to run, but it was already too late.  The spider leapt into the air with surprising agility and landed on Lio’s back, wrapping its long spindly legs around him.

Summer turned her head.  She didn’t want to see what was coming next.  Then she realized that if she wasn’t watching, she wouldn’t see the spider when it came for them, which she was sure it would do as soon as it finished with Lio.  She reached for her katana, the thought of touching the giant spider even with the blade making her stomach lurch in disgust. 

The sudden low, buzzing sound of a particle rifle brought her head up and around, the katana held ready as she moved protectively in front of Darleen.  She smiled with relief when she saw Maxim, Loni, Ran and Doc, and knew that she did not have to look at Lio and the spider after all. 

Chapter
42

Summer slid the katana back into its sheath as Maxim strode toward her, his expression stern and forbidding.  But she understood him better now.  She took two steps toward him before leaping into his arms, her arms wrapping tightly around his neck as she buried her face against the warmth of his throat.  The feel of his strong arms holding her tightly against him, and the rapid beat of his heart served to enforce what she already knew.  He had been worried and afraid for her, and he was relieved that she was alive and unharmed.

“You are well?” he asked, his voice low and deep, his breath as he spoke tickling her ear.

“I am well,” she said, raising her head to gaze into his golden eyes.  “And I have made a decision.”

Maxim raised a brow.  “A decision?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.  She turned to make sure that Loni and Ran were close by, and they were exactly where she’d thought they’d be.  Ran close on their right, Loni close on their left.

“Move in here a little guys,” she said softly.  Both men did as she asked until the four of them were touching each other, all of their heads together. 

“When I was down here, alone, fighting that...that thing over there,” she said, nodding towards William’s remains, “I suddenly realized how horrible it would be if I were to die without having first known what it was to be mated with the three of you.  And I knew that, no matter what else happened, I had to stay alive so that I could do that.  I promised myself that I would not go another day without doing whatever it is we need to do to make me your Arima.”

Maxim, Loni and Ran all stared at her in stunned silence for a long moment.  Then Maxim squeezed her tightly, bent his head and kissed her hard and deep.  They heard a long, loud whoop of joy that was so startling to them both that they broke their kiss and stared in shock at Loni, who grinned back at them before reaching for Summer.  Maxim released her into Loni’s arms and he bent to kiss her long and deep as well.  When he raised his head, Summer was touched to note that he had tears in his eyes. 

“Thank you, Summer, for accepting us,” he said softly.  “I promise you that I will treasure you every moment of our lives together.”

Summer smiled, blinking back her own tears as Ran reached for her, anxious for his turn.  He spun her around a couple of times, then kissed her deeply.  “I love you,” he said simply.

“As I love you,” she replied. 

“Um, I hate to interrupt, but I think that bug is wiggling,” Darleen said hesitantly.

Ran put Summer down at once and spun around to face the Xanti, his particle rifle out and aimed.  Summer stared at it for a moment, but she didn’t see any movement.  She did sense...something though.  She reached out tentatively and was surprised to find an electronic component in the thing’s body giving off a signal of some sort.  She wasn’t sure what it was, but she immediately disabled it.  She then focused her attention on the robotic shell and found another one, which she disabled as well.

“I just deactivated what I think were homing beacons in both the...bug...and the shell,” she said. 

“The
bug
is, I believe, a Xanti,” Maxim said.  “We have never known the Xanti’s true nature until now.  Probably because they retrieve the bodies of their fallen.  Thanks to you, they won’t be able to do that this time.  But, just to be on the safe side, lets wrap it up.”

Maxim focused on the Xanti, and Summer shuddered again as its legs slowly unwrapped themselves from around Lio’s body, then rose into the air and settled a few feet away. 

“I’ve encased it in a block of solid air,” Maxim said.  “I want to get it up to the ship and in a stasis bag as soon as possible though.  This will be very important to our council scientists.”

“What about Lio?” Darleen asked as she stepped up next to Summer.  Summer turned to look at Darleen’s leg, which Doc had bandaged.

“How’s your leg?” she asked.

“It’ll be fine,” Doc answered for her.  “Just a deep graze.  I’ll have it fixed up good as new as soon as we get back on the ship.” 

Darleen sent Doc a shy smile that Summer pretended not to notice.

“We’ll put Lio a stasis bag as well,” Maxim said, answering Darleen’s question. 

“So, he’s dead then?” Darleen asked.  Summer and Maxim both glanced at Darleen sharply.  There had been something a little strained in her tone.