No Words Alone (20 page)

“Of course. I’ll stay in contact as I
transport them.” Shiza touched his communicator as a gesture.

Ryven looked subtly relieved. “Thank you.” He
brushed Xera’s hand. “I’ll say goodbye before you leave.”

She nodded, eyes downcast as she pressed his
hand. She longed to hug him, but understood his feelings of
reserve. He would hold her when they were alone.

It was nerve-wracking, traveling the hallways
where Khun’tat had recently roamed. Not all the corpses had been
removed. The bodies made grizzly mile markers for the journey.

She and Namae packed lightly. The docking
vessels didn't need any extra weight, not with the need to quickly
haul the wounded, and they didn't want to linger. Xera was done
before Namae and went to check on her. She was pleased to see Namae
subtly relying on Shiza, allowing him to help her pack a travel
case. She was doing her best to seem serene, but it was obvious the
shocks of the day had taken their toll.

He was subtle in his concern and
matter-of-fact in its exercise. His practicality was a good mask
for the glint of worry in his eye.

Ryven entered the room just as Shiza was
sealing Namae’s travel case. He hugged his sister and murmured
assurances, then took Xera in his arms. He didn’t say anything.
Fiercely, she returned the hug. "I'll miss you. I'm glad we're
alive." She breathed in his scent. "Hurry home."

He breathed deeply, his nose in her hair.
"Woman..." He shook his head. "Shiza will keep you safe. Hurry home
yourself; I want to know you're away from harm." He would never
say, “I love you” while others looked on.

He released her. “It’s time.”

He, Shiza and an armed escort took them down
the grim corridors to a crowded transport ship. Xera solemnly
clasped hands with Ryven and watched as his father and sister said
goodbye. Their bags were stowed in the webbing, and they settled
into their seats. Their ship was sealed, the docking clamps
disengaged. A glance out the porthole showed Ryven’s battleship
getting smaller.

Xera looked away, unable to dwell on it.
Already she missed him. It was depressing, the thought of leaving
him behind, but she also understood the need: he didn't dare to be
worrying about his family at a time like this. She wasn’t wild
about staying exposed out here anyway, not when there was nothing
she could do. Insisting on staying with him now would be childish,
even if she felt lost and adrift in his world without him as an
anchor.

Funny, she hadn’t realized how dependent upon
him she’d become.

Chapter 16

Ryven had little time to think of his wife. With his
ship so badly damaged he had his hands full directing his crew.
Thankfully, Shiza had loaned him extra men to make up for his
casualties. Some of those men he put to making repairs. Others went
with him to explore the remains of the Khun’tat craft.

He was grateful his wife would hear about
this exploit later; if at all. Women were touchy about that kind of
thing. The reconnaissance had to be done, however, and he wanted to
be a part of the exploration team that tried to discover why the
Khun’tat had behaved so erratically and gotten so deep in Scorpio
territory. None of them wanted a repeat of the situation.

The second-in-command of the other Scorpio
battleship joined him as he docked his troop transport with the
Khun’tat vessel. Scans showed life forms inside the ship, some of
which were humanoid; probably some survivors from the space
station. Getting to them would be a challenge, though. Even after
they forced the docking hatch open, they were faced with bigger
challenges. The Khun’tat ship was a series of honeycombs; layers of
phosphorescent orange cells stacked on top of each other, formed
around a hollow core. Each comb led to a warren of tunnels
organized in an obscure way known only to Khun’tat. Stairs linked
the different levels, but there was precious little cover while
they climbed them. Any enemy who wanted to take a shot at them
would have easy pickings.

The humanoid readings were all coming from
the third level; the brood area. Mouth set in a grim line, Ryven
led his troops in. Oddly, they encountered no resistance.
Apparently the remaining Khun’tat were content to guard their
queen, deep in the center of the ship, their most protected
location. He almost wished he’d had more to shoot when they finally
entered the brood chamber.

Stunned and helpless, a few people lay piled
on the floor, awaiting attention. Others hadn’t been as lucky.
Several had already been sealed up in brood chambers. They’d had no
defense when larvae had attached to them and began to suck their
blood. Some of the grotesque worms had attached to legs or engulfed
hands. Others had chosen stomachs. One was sucking greedily on an
eye socket. And if Ryven and the others hadn’t come, the adult
Khun’tat would have been feasting on the drained bodies by
suppertime.

Ryven swallowed to settle his gorge and
ordered those who couldn’t be saved to be shot, mercy deaths being
preferable to being savaged. The rest of the victims were taken to
the transports for evacuation. Only when the last had vanished did
they proceed with phase two.

Their goal was to take the Queen alive for
questioning. Interrogating a drone would be useless, as they were
little more than puppets, but to succeed they first had to get past
the twenty or thirty drones guarding her. They couldn’t get a more
accurate body count, as the room was heavily shielded.

They shot a spike through the door with a
high-powered gun that also was loaded with a special gas to
incapacitate the Khun’tat nervous system. Ryven gave the signal,
and everyone moved back as a magnetic charge was affixed to the
door. Specially designed to spend its energy in one direction, it
emitted a sonic blast that shivered the door to hot molten
pieces.

Thanks to the nerve gas, the aliens inside
reeled as if they were roaring drunk. A few got off shots, but the
battle was hopelessly lop-sided. Ryven’s men captured a few and
shot the rest. The captives would be used for experiments, to
develop things like the nerve gas. The Scorpio had no qualms on
treating these prisoners like animals, either. An eye for an eye,
blood for blood….

The queen snarled at them. She was much
larger than the males, with features set in a broader head. She had
no hands or feet, just a worm-like body covered in rounded, glassy
blue plates. Her head hoses were harder looking, almost like horns
trailing down her neck. She had no purpose other than to eat and
breed, but she was revered by her race.

Ryven took satisfaction in knowing that he’d
just killed and captured all of her favorite drones and breeding
partners. This monster fed on the bodies of his people. This queen
had probably eaten hundreds of his kind, for the queens were always
given the best food. For Khun’tat, the best food was always
Scorpio.

He turned and casually fired on the slimy
green eggs piled next to her. There was an explosion and a
horrendous stench of burned goo.

The queen roared.

Ryven casually looked at her. “A lovely
smell, no? I know you can understand me. I want to know why you
chose here and now to attack. If you deny me, I will destroy your
eggs one by one; then I will see to you.”

The queen gave a guttural snarl. She looked
behind her.

Ryven’s men all tensed and aimed their guns.
Were there more Khun’tat hiding back there?

What emerged next was a surprise. A slender
young woman appeared from behind the queen. Unmistakably humanoid,
she was as pale as a corpse and dressed all in burnt yellow. The
garment’s bright color made her pallor even more ghastly.

Ryven’s men looked to him for an explanation.
He had none. Khun’tat ate people; they didn’t let them run loose in
the queen’s egg room.

Not that the girl looked capable of running.
If anything, she seemed like to faint at any moment. Nevertheless,
she parted her lips and said faintly, “The queen says, ‘I will not
speak the language of food.’”

Ryven’s lip curled, though his disgust was
not for the girl. She did not look Scorpio, not with that hair the
color of toasted sugar tipped with black. She couldn’t be human,
either, unless they came with pointed ears and cat eyes. Where had
she come from?

“Is that what you are, her food?” he
asked.

The girl’s eyes were so old, so weary. “I am
of the Leo-Ahni. We are...allies with the Khun’tat.”

The pause in her voice made him wonder. “Yet
they feed on you.” That had to be the source of her pallor. He’d
lay odds that the girl was blooded, and often. “It would seem to
make you their slaves, not their equals.”

The girl was silent.

Ryven studied the queen. Perhaps he didn’t
need her after all. “I have never seen your kind, girl, yet you
speak our language. Why?”

“We are taught. The queen does not speak the
language of food, though she understands all things. You are
food.”

He laughed. “Is that so?” Before she could
blink, he’d grabbed her and pulled her out of the reach of the
queen, who roared angrily. The Khun’tat monarch started to charge,
but quickly drew back as laser fire scorched her hide.

Ryven thrust the girl at a medic. “Do a
med-scan, quick. I don’t want her dying on us.” He looked back at
the angry queen. “Now we will talk; without your mouthpiece this
time. You have things to tell me.”

The girl lay in sickbay, barely conscious and
severely anemic. The Khun’tat had installed a shunt in her arm and
bled her quite often, judging by her condition. She was dehydrated,
her hair coarse and her heartbeat patchy. There was no doubt they’d
saved her life by taking her from captivity.

Ryven was fatigued from questioning the
queen. Her answers had not come easily or without pain, but she’d
told them enough in the end. The queens had used the Leo-Ahni to
study the Scorpio, taking a few of them on as slaves and
translators. While ostensibly an honor, very often those servants
ended up as food. The Khun’tat truly couldn’t control their
appetite, which made Ryven speculate on the condition of the Leo
people. Had the Khun’tat tried to be farmers and found themselves
unsuited to the task? Unable to keep from consuming their
stock?

Whatever the case, the Leo were behind the
Khun’tat’s recent change in tactics. It did not bode well for their
relationship.

Unfortunately, the only one of the Leo Ryven
had met now lay in his sickbay on the verge of a coma. The doctors
were working to replicate her blood for a transfusion, but it was
going slowly. He could hardly interrogate her in her current state.
There was no telling what damage may have been done to her mind,
either. It couldn’t have been easy serving on that ship, watching
the queen feed on the captured. The girl might not be quite
sane.

Reports of similar attacks were now coming
in, including one on Toosun’s ship. Toosun acquitted himself well,
but another battleship was destroyed. The captain had
self-destructed his ship when it was obvious all was lost. Unlike
Ryven, he’d had no last-minute rescue.

Communications with several outposts and
smaller ships had been lost. All were in a state of emergency.
Already demands had come back from the Lord Governor’s emergency
assemblyto do everything possible to heal the Leo girl, and
now
. Further escort and more doctors were being sent to make
sure she reached safety. Survival depended on it. The Scorpio
wanted to know where her homeworld was, fast. Her people would be
given a chance to talk, to cease hostilities. After that, there
would be no mercy.

Knowing it was useless to wait around
sickbay, Ryven went to see the ship’s status on repairs. The sooner
they were patched, the sooner he could get home.

Xera’s ship had arrived on Rsik the previous
day. She didn’t feel much like company. Ryven’s family was grimly
focused on news of the Khun’tat’s surprise attacks that were now
occurring with alarming frequency. Xera had thought about it until
her mind began to chase round and round, and she was done.

She’d gotten Lord Atarus to send a message to
her people concerning the new dangers. Thanks to the new relay
station he’d agreed to help set up during their talks with the GE
and IC, the message wouldn’t take as much effort as the initial
contact had. She was grateful: as long as the two sides maintained
a truce, she had a real chance of sending occasional messages to
her family. And that benefit paled in comparison to the importance
of informing her people about the Khun’tat threat. She didn’t see
how a moon base could possibly prosper in her intended location
now, as she didn’t want responsibility for innocent people being
hurt.

She was a little worried about the GE heeding
the warnings. If they continued their pattern of sneakiness, they
might use the Scorpio’s preoccupation with the Khun’tat to continue
snooping around, maybe even on the planet she’d been marooned on.
That might make continued communication with her family difficult,
for although the Scorpio relay station was powerful, it relied on
other stations in human space to bounce her messages home. If her
signal was intentionally interrupted because the GE started a
war…

She sighed. She’d mention her concerns to
Ryven, but that was really all she could do.

The stress had driven her out of her rooms
and to explore. She’d sent Namae on an errand, accepted that she
couldn’t do the same with her bodyguards and chosen to tune out
their silent presence; except when she had to ask directions, of
course. Happily, the guards were very like well-trained department
store clerks: they had a gift for showing up only when she needed
them; the rest of the time they were remarkably unobtrusive. As a
result, she got to tour the marketplace virtually carefree.