A Bug's Life (6 page)

Of course, that knowledge didn’t make waiting
easier. Only, in a way, it did. Because I now knew why I was
afraid, and I was able to counter it. By reliving my memories,
starting from the first time I’d met Roy, up through the last
couple of jobs we’d just done. I wondered if Tresia and Dr. Wufren
were doing the same, and figured they probably were.

This took some time, but we
certainly had it – the cruiser wasn’t going anywhere fast. However,
they also weren’t sending out scout ships or blasting the
Hummingbird
from the sky,
so I chose to believe things were going well. I just hoped the
cruiser didn’t have any kind of telepath on board, though they were
required, by their own laws, to advise any other ship, Diamante or
otherwise, if they had an Espen working on their ship. One of the
many Diamante laws we tended to ignore but, for whatever reason,
they usually didn’t.

Finally Roy said, “Roger that, over and out.”
The cruiser took off slowly, not going to warp, but not searching
around, either.

The three of us remained quiet – just because
the cruiser appeared to be leaving didn’t mean it wasn’t some kind
of a trap or trick. But it continued on until I couldn’t see it
anymore.

“All clear
,” Ciarissa said in our minds. “
Doven
will keep the illusion in place, just in case. Advise when you are
unable to navigate properly and only then will he remove
it.
”

“They just went to warp,” Roy said. “Get out
of there and back into the ship immediately. Faster if you can
manage it.”

Tresia flipped the laser cutter up and cut
away the part of the chamber that we’d crawled through. This took
longer than any of us would have liked, but she had to be careful
not to cut our tethers or get them caught up in the debris, and Dr.
Wufren and I had to keep a hold of the Birthing Sac with the young
in it.

“Last piece is away,” Tresia said as she once
again hooked the laser cutter over her arm. “Shall we return?” she
asked me and Dr. Wufren.

“Why wouldn’t you?” Roy asked, sounding
testy.

“Because we’ve had an emotional time out
here,” I replied. I had to figure the others had been treated to
the same emotional stress that I had, because it made more sense
that they would than not.

Tresia and Dr. Wufren both turned to me. “You,
too?” the Doctor asked me. Always nice to be right.

“Yes. Tresia?”

“Oh, yes. Ciarissa, did you pick up anything
from any of us?”

“No,” Ciarissa replied. “You three were all
amazingly quiet, both audibly and telepathically.”

“Yeah, well, as to that, we have a situation.”
Which we’ll handle, I thought to myself. And we’ll handle it in
such a way that our new charges will not be harmed or deserted.
“Ciarissa, did you hear what I just thought?”

“No, DeeDee, I did not, but I was not
monitoring, either. I am…rather tired.”

“I’m sure. The rest of you on the ship, were
any of you worried about things?”

“Well, yeah,” Kyle said, sounding confused.
“You three were outside of the ship when we needed to run. Doven
and Ciarissa were extending their powers for a long period of time
and big bro was faking it like he’d spent his life in a Diamante
uniform. Of course we were worried.” The others chimed in with
similar concerns.

“We were here, with them,” Dr. Wufren said.
“We three risked all to get them. That’s why they focused on
us.”

“Plus they, like we, were hiding,” Tresia
pointed out.

“Who are you talking about?” Roy
asked.

“Tell you once we’re all on board. We have a
dozen Pillar young, by the way. While the three of us are
maneuvering back into the bosom of our home, the rest of you try to
come up with how we protect them at warp speed. Even if it’s a
crazy idea, we’re going to want to hear it when we’re
back.”

“We will need to go into the cargo hold,”
Tresia added. “The section of Birthing Sac we have is too large to
go through the regular hatch.”

“Of course it is,” Roy muttered.

“I’ll handle it, bro,” Kyle said.

“I’ll help,” Bullfrog said. “Getting into my
suit now.”

Getting back to the ship wasn’t as hard as I’d
been worried it would be – we ensured we had firm holds on the
Birthing Sac, Doven altered his illusion so that we could see the
real cargo hold, we aimed for the belly of the ship, pushed off at
the same time, and floated towards our goal.

There were a few pieces of debris floating in
our way, but Dr. Wufren managed to shove them away telekinetically,
and we avoided minor unpleasant encounters on the way
back.

We’d aimed well, and the hold door opened as
we got close. Bullfrog and Kyle were tethered to the inside of the
ship and they shoved off to catch us. Once they had holds on the
Sac, Willy mechanically rewound their tethers and pulled them and
our precious cargo back into the ship.

The three of us who’d gone out of the airlock
now pulled ourselves back via our tethers, reached the ladder,
unclipped, and went back inside. I went last, and as the airlock
door closed behind me I heard a group sigh of relief on the
com.

“Get out of the suits and to stations as fast
as you can,” Roy said. “We can’t warp out of here, so I want to
leave as soon as possible.”

“I have an idea,” Kyle said as he flooded the
airlock with oxygen and let the three of us fully back into the
ship.

“And what is that?” Roy asked, patience
clearly forced.

“Polliskins inside of space suits,” Kyle said,
as he helped us get our spacesuits off. “If we can get the babies
into Polliskins, then into a space suit, they can probably manage
warp. We could even try putting them just into the Polliskin
helmets.”

“And you think, in the entire history of the
Pillar race, that not one of them ever thought of that?” Roy
asked.

Bullfrog joined us. “Maybe not, Roy. It would
be a rare Polliwog who would have been interested in them prior to
the Purge. And I don’t think they were frequent visitors to
Polliworld.”

“They look like your people’s idea of food,” I
pointed out. “I’d be willing to bet that it would have to have been
a rare Pillar who wanted to risk getting eaten just to visit
somewhere new.”

“We must ensure these survive,” Tresia
said.

Dr. Wufren nodded. “However, Kyle’s idea is
sound. And one that, frankly, only someone who traveled with a
Polliwog and visited Polliworld regularly would think
of.”

“I like the kid’s idea, but I have a question
– how will we get them into the suits without crushing them?” Willy
asked. “Because the helmet idea won’t work.”

“We’ll have them stay in Round Form,” I
answered. “I have a plan as well. Besides, they’re willing to take
the risk. Now that they know for sure that we’re trying to save
them, that is.”

There was silence on the com, and the
expressions on Kyle, Willy, and Bullfrog’s faces shared that they
felt I’d finally gone around the comets once too many times. Tresia
and Dr. Wufren, on the other hand, looked unsurprised and also
determined.

“Group meeting, in the hold,” Dr. Wufren said.
“DeeDee, Tresia, and I have something to tell the rest of
you.”

“We will complete two tasks at the same time,”
Tresia added, “and get our young survivors set up to survive their
rescue.”

The six of us gathered all of our Polliskins
and met up with Roy, Doven, and Ciarissa in the cargo hold. Roy
looked worried and unhappy. “Tell me again why we’re not trying to
get out of here and why my entire crew is being
insubordinate?”

“It was a test,” I said, as I looked at the
Pillar still sleeping in their Sacs. The last ones from this
colony. “They wanted to be sure they could trust us.”

“They who?” Willy asked.

“The Pillar. These Pillar. I know why the
Diamante Families destroyed Pilla and why they want to kill every
last Pillar left.”

Ciarissa cocked her head. Her blonde hair
floated around her – our gravity generators were working, this was
just the way Ciarissa’s hair was most of the time. I didn’t know
enough Espens to know if this was common or not with their
telepaths. For all I knew, her hair floated because she was near a
telekinetic, or Dr. Wufren used her hair for practice. It was one
of those questions I’d never felt comfortable asking.

“They’re telepathic,” she said softly. Tresia,
Dr. Wufren, and I nodded. “But not individually and not when
they’re awake. It only happens when they’re young and in these
chambers. The Birthing Sacs…amplify their talents.”

“So does proximity to each other.”

Roy shook his head. “How could that be and no
one knew about it?”

“And why can’t we hear them –” Kyle stopped
speaking abruptly. “Oh.”

“They’re talking to you?” Tresia asked
him.

He nodded. “Kind of. Not like Ciarissa does.
It’s more like…I’m feeling what they want me to.”

“Yes, that’s what it was like for me,” Tresia
said.

“Me, too.”

“I as well, but, Roy to answer your question,
why share a power that your young possess?” Dr. Wufren asked.
“Someone realized it, and the moment they did…”

“They were slaughtered,” I finished. “I assume
the young Pillars who were in Birthing Sacs at the time were the
ones who sounded the alarm to leave Pilla in the first
place.”

Ciarissa nodded. “There were some…Espens who
warned Pilla of the danger, but by the time that warning came, they
were already making preparations to leave their planet.”

There was an Espen underground set up across
the galaxy – I’d learned that during our last mission. That they’d
warned Pilla made sense. That Pilla had already known should have
raised some questions, though.

“If Espens knew the Pillar were aware of the
danger, how is it that this telepathic talent was not known by the
entire galaxy?” Doven asked.

Ciarissa shook her head. “Espen’s leaders were
firmly on the path of neutrality. The assumption, encouraged by
Pillar leadership, by the way, was that they’d been warned by
someone else.”