Space Hostages (27 page)

H
elen plowed into the sea and kept on going. Carl was trying to drag her prow up now to flatten the angle, and water (and churned-up bits of puffball plant) battered the front window like the universe's most violent car wash.

And then we stopped, just off the shore of Laeteelae, rocking on the waves.

“Are you sinking, Helen? Tell me you're not sinking!” I said.

“I don't think I'm sinking,” said Helen thoughtfully.

“Didn't explode!” gasped Carl, letting go of the controls and flopping back in the pilot's chair. “Can I get a high five for not exploding?”

We all obliged, though I don't know if it's technically a high five when a Morror does it.

“That was awesome, Carl,” I said.

“A smashed-up-and-on-fire kind of awesome,” said Carl.

“Sounds like us,” said Josephine.

Everything went quiet. Well, it didn't, because the sky was full of whooping and singing, and I could hear Rasmus Trommler banging against the inside of his cupboard and whining to be let out, but right there on the bridge things had finally kind of
stopped
.

“So what now?” I said.

“Well,” said Carl, swiveling in his chair. “I think we've probably started a war, and something awful's going to happen. But before it does, can we maybe eat something?”

There was a soft
thump
overhead. An Eemala had landed on the windscreen. She leaped back into the air as we noticed her, and hovered outside with two others, waving at us.

“It's Uwaelee! And Hoolinyae and Eenyo!”

Helen popped open a hatch we hadn't known she had. It was too high to reach, but Kat-li-Yaka and Qualt-zu-Quo passed us up, one by one. We stood on the
Helen
's roof and watched the Eemala dancing
through the sky.

“Oh,” breathed Noel, blinking in the Yaelan sun, dappled by the shadows of Eemala wings.

“You're okay!” I said, delighted, because Eenyo's collar was gone. He somersaulted above us in the warm air, and he and the others hugged us and hugged the two Krakkiluks when they climbed out after us.

“Waaaay, Goltfeesh!” cheered Uwaelee, pulling it into the air and trying to dance with it.
“H'yumans!”

Then a Wurrhuya plunged down to us in a glory of plum-colored wings, and Ningleenill bounced off its back. He seized me, Josephine, and Carl in turn and gave each of us a fierce little shake—which I think was meant in a nice way—and the Goldfish a similarly friendly smack.

“I always said it was worth cooperating with alien species!”
he crowed.
“I knew I would live to see Yaela free!”

“Oh,
wow
.” Noel almost sobbed, transfixed by the Wurrhuya.

“Thought you'd like those things,” said Carl, grinning and messing up Noel's hair. “Go on and pet them. They're friendly.”

Noel reached up tentatively, and one of the
Wurrhuya lowered its head to be stroked, and Noel's face broke into a gigantic grin. The two Wurrhuya settled on the water like giant swans and rumbled contentedly as Noel stroked them and made noises back to them and almost forgot anyone else was there.

And then Tweel and the other kids from the rubbish dump came flapping out over the water to join the party—and Naonwai was with them, jubilantly carried by the rest. Uwaelee screamed for joy when she saw him, and the two erupted upward like a pair of fireworks, tumbling over each other and spinning and embracing in the air.

“You did this? Even with no wings and almost no arms?”
Tweel asked us.

“Well, you kind of learn to work around it,” said Carl.

“What happens now?” I asked again. Everyone seemed as cheerful as if everything was fine, but there was still a big angry Krakkiluk spaceship up there. I could see flocks of busy Eemala over the heights of Laeteelae, and I'm sure some of them were doing important things like seizing the government offices and so on. But here on the sea, others were picking puffballs and throwing them at each other like a snowball fight in much brighter colors, and the
Goldfish tossed golden sparkles everywhere without anyone so much as knowing the capital of Venezuela, and the kids whooped in delight.

“Nobody knows!”
said Hoolinyae joyously.

The Archangel Planetary dove robots came hovering out of Helen's hatch, bearing pizza. We were all obviously not very happy with those doves, but in terms of reconciliation, I guess pizza was a decent start. Carl and Josephine and I devoured the first batch almost before it was out of the ship, barely tasting it, but then when we were still ravenous but slightly less desperate, we all sat on the
Helen
's roof and ate, and it was the best pepperoni pizza in any world.

“Do you think . . . these things could get my harmonica?” said Josephine tentatively.

They could. And the
Paralashath
too, when Th
saaa
asked, and the Eemala exclaimed in delight at the colors and music that rose over the sea.

“So this is what humans eat,”
said Naonwai, handling a slice dubiously.
“This . . . pizza.”

“Yep, pretty much,” agreed Carl, demolishing another piece and lying back in the sun on the
Helen
's roof.

“It is surprisingly good,” Th
saaa
insisted. But Naonwai nibbled a piece and gagged, which I guess
was inevitable but still disappointing.

“I wish you could taste what it's like to us,” I said dreamily. I was getting very, very tired, and my foot wanted me to remember it was slightly broken. “And I wish we could taste what those purple berry things taste like to you.”

“Maybe Dr. Muldoon can come up with a way,” said Noel. And I felt suddenly guilty. I hadn't thought about Dr. Muldoon in a long time, and heaven knew where she was or what was happening to her.

“We need to repair our ship,” I said. “She's hurt.”

“I guess that depends on what happens up there,” said Josephine, looking at the sky. I thought I could see lightning flashes in the depths of the sky, beyond the green.

“They will never take us again,”
said Hoolinyae simply.

My eyes were drifting shut. Josephine began to play something gentle and lilting, and from far away I heard a voice, like the edge of a dream. . . .

“
Helen of Troy
, do you read me? Come in,
Helen of Troy
.”

I sat up. It couldn't be possible.

“
Helen of Troy
—please, is anyone there? Do you copy?”

“This is the
Helen of Troy
. I can hear you, Captain
Dare,” replied the
Helen
. “Your daughter is sitting on my roof, eating pizza.”

The others all looked at me.

“No
way,
” said Carl.

“Oh my
god
,” I said, dropping my pizza, and I slid down through the hatch back onto the bridge, leaving a smear of marinara sauce on the
Helen
's roof.

“Mum?!” I said as the others followed me down. “Mum, Mum, it's Alice—is that really you?”

Mum let out a very long breath before she answered, as if she'd been holding it for a long time.

“I told you I'd catch up,” she said finally.

“Oh,
Mum
,” I said, trying not to cry.

“Alice, it's going to be all right,” said Mum, and I wondered how long it had been since I'd dared believe that. “I need you to tell me who else is on the
Helen
with you.”

“Lena's still on the Krakkiluks' ship, and they took Dr. Muldoon off into the Grand Expanse to do science for them,” I said. “But the rest of us are all down here. We're all alive.”

“
All
of you?” repeated Mum, incredulous.

“Hey, Captain Dare,” said Carl. “Yeah, we're all here.”

“Thank god, thank god,” whispered Mum.

“And Mr. Trommler's here, but he's a really bad
traitor, so Helen's got him locked in a cupboard,” added Noel.

“Right, good to know,” said Mum, who is always good at adapting to new information. “Now, I'm a little busy up here, and there's someone else I need to speak to.” And then, in a very different voice, she said, “Lady Sklat-kli-Sklak, on behalf of Earth and Aushalawa-Mo
raaa
, I demand that you stand down. Renounce all claim to Aushalawa-Mo
raaa
and return all hostages immediately.”

There was only a tiny pause, and then Lady Sklat-kli-Sklak spoke from the Krakkiluk ship and I heard her translated voice over Helen's speakers. “What possesses the captain of a tiny fleet of humans and Morrors to make demands of the Grand Expanse? How dare you invade our territory? You are lucky I have not blasted your little ship out of the sky.”

“You're the lucky one, so far,” said Mum.

“And why is that?” inquired Lady Sklat-kli-Sklak.

“Because,” said Mum, “my ship is full of Vshomu eggs.”

There was silence.

“Do you need a reminder of what Vshomu are? Some people call them Space Locusts. They're small creatures. But they can survive in the vacuum of
space, they can live on nothing but dust and rock, they multiply at speeds you can barely imagine, and if left to themselves they can eat planets. I've got a million eggs in suspended animation in my hold. One misfire from you, and you'll get to see them for yourselves.”

The silence from Lady Sklat-kli-Sklat wore on for what felt like a long time. “If this is so, then you would never release them so close to Yaela. You would destroy the very planet that shelters your children,” she said at last.

“Oh, Vshomu are a
manageable problem
,” said my mum. “So long as you catch them early. But once they're in your space, you'll never get them out. You'll be defending
every
planet you occupy from them forever. What is that going to
cost
the Grand Expanse
,
Your Ladyship? Because I'm sure you could buy a lot of Takwuk with it.”

Ningleenill abruptly descended into the cabin along with the Goldfish and began speaking flawless Krakkiluk.

“Lady Sklat-kli-Sklak,”
translated the Goldfish.
“This is Ningleenill. I hope you remember me.”

“Of course,” said Lady Sklat-kli-Sklat. “Ningleenill. How long has it been? I had supposed you dead. You were a credit to your species, before you turned
traitor to the Expanse. Still, for old times' sake, it is good to hear from you.”

“I remember you and your husband fondly,”
said Ningleenill, astonishingly.
“It is good to hear your voice again. But I remind you that millions of Krakkiluk spawn are swimming in our seas. My people are no longer bound to care for them. The well-being of your spawn depends on our goodwill. The Grand Expanse must recognize Yaela's independence now.”

“I'm losing patience, Lady Sklat-kli-Sklak,” announced my mum, who hadn't been able to understand any of this. “I have torpedoes packed with Vshomu eggs locked onto your ship. I'm sure the missiles will shatter off your armor, but the larvae will mature to eat through the hull within two days.”

The other Eemala had gathered around the
Helen
's hatch, anxiously poking their heads inside.

Lady Sklat-kli-Sklak made a rattling sound in her throat. It began quietly but built to a clattering roar, and Kat-li-Yaka and Qualt-zu-Quo moaned and held claws.

At last she broke off and started talking again, quite calmly. “One stipulation. The criminal called Rasmus Trommler has stolen from us and betrayed
us. He must be turned over to us for judgment.”

Mum didn't hesitate. “Absolutely not. He's a
human
criminal, and Earth will deal with him. And whatever cupboard he's in on the
Helen
, he can consider himself under arrest. You are in no position to make these demands, my lady.”

“I will withdraw,” said Sklat-kli-Sklak. “Your citizens will be returned. But the Grand Expanse does not forget.”

The channel went silent. And that was that.

Hoolinyae erupted into the air with cries of joy, and Eenyo sat down and put both pairs of hands over his face.

“Alice, hold tight—we'll get you out of there soon,” promised Mum.

Ningleenill gathered himself up into an upside-down bundle hanging from a vent in Helen's ceiling, head on one side.

“Not such a bad old lady
,
Sklat-kli-Slkak,”
he said.

“You
know
her?” I asked.

“She and her husband were Yaela's governors when I was young. In her day, there were standards.”

The younger rebels seemed as shocked as we were.
“She is a terrible tyrant!”
cried Kat-li-Yaka.

“She has kept scores of worlds strangled within
the Expanse's collar!”
said Eenyo.

“She threw us out of an
airlock
,” I said.

“She was an enemy you could
respect
,” insisted Ningleenill, letting go of the vent and flying out of the hatch. “Not like those useless young commanders they have now.”

“You mean there are
worse
ones?” said Carl, horrified, but Uwaelee had just hit Ningleenill with a thrown puffball, and he made an outraged face and flapped off to return fire.

And by then Hoolinyae and Eenyo had passed on the cry that the Krakkiluks were leaving, and the sky filled with it, and even the Wurrhuya raised their heads and bellowed their song into the green air.

And so we never got an answer.

Showering on a downed spaceship floating in an alien sea while everyone has a party is weird, but after you've been wearing the same melted-and-torn-up uniform for three days, you get to a point where you just have to do it.

It was one thing for the Krakkiluks to hand back Lena, but another for them to whisk Dr. Muldoon back from wherever they'd taken her, and Mum was up there waiting for them. So the party raged on, and Carl coaxed Qualt-zu-Quo and Kat-li-Yaka to
take Noel on a Wurrhuya ride over the root forests while Eemala engineers came and did their best to repair the
Helen
. When I came out, I ran into Christa. She'd washed her face too and put on a little makeup, and you couldn't tell she'd been crying. She looked at me, her jaw set.