A Larger Universe (48 page)

Except for her last.

The small voice came from behind her.  “Mother, are you
well?  We have been so worried about you.  What is happening?”

 Las responded with a squealing whistle as she turned. 
“Lada, they let you come to me!”

Lada’s level gaze met that of her still seated mother.  “The
warriors that brought me here said that they are worried about you, too.  They
also said that I am too small and young to be a threat.  Why are they worried
about you, Mother?”

Las pulled her daughter into her arms and voiced a low
whistle.  “Maybe because I quit trying to get out, they think I will kill
myself.”  She held her half-grown kit at arms’ length.  “Now that you are here,
I am already better.”  She wrapped her clawed hand affectionately around her
daughter’s muzzle.  “You may be small, but you are old enough to talk.  Stay
with me a while.  We will swim and eat.  When you leave, I will have a message
for the mothers in the family chamber.”

#   #   #

   The raucous whistling almost deafened her as the door
popped open.  A mob of adult Nesu held the three warrior guards against the
floor.  Three other warriors stood against the far wall of the passage, their
hands fingering the collars around their necks.

Whna, the senior mother from Las’s family chamber stepped to
the front, her tail flipping back and forth behind her.  Whna’s statement
addressed both Las and the warriors held on the floor.  “We have replaced and
activated the collars on these six.  They will help us now or die!”

“Good!” Las replied.  “We must release the other People and
reclaim our ship.”

The band moved quickly through The Peoples’ decks, growing
larger as they overcame each group of warrior guards.  First three warriors
“relieved” the warriors standing guard, and then struck them to the floor as
soon as they turned their backs to march away.  Only one group noticed that the
relieving guards were wearing collars, but they were swiftly overwhelmed by
others waiting around the curve in the passageway. 

Las entered Ull’s quarters with a triumphant whistle.  “Ull,
we are retaking the ship!  Join us.”

Ull’s head appeared above the surface of the water.  From
behind her, the smaller head of a male peered fearfully.

“To what end?” Ull asked.  “Will we be able to escape the
Kadiil?”

Las voiced a low whistle.  “Perhaps not.  But whatever
happens, it will be as the council wills.  We must return this ship to the
control of The People.”

Ull pulled herself from the water.  As she glanced back at
the male the mournful whistle she voiced was almost inaudible above the roar of
the waterfall.  “I had almost forgotten my duty.”  She shook the water from her
fur.  “How did you free yourself?”

“I commanded the mothers of my family chambers to overwhelm
their guards.”  Las whistled derisively.  “Too long have the mothers lived
without effort or responsibility.  Too long have they relied on the council to
make their decisions and on the warriors to protect them.  This must change.”

Ull said something that Las couldn’t understand.  Louder Ull
said, “Whatever else happens, I owe the feral something that I must repay. 
What is your plan?”

#   #   #

They rushed from the elevators into an empty bridge.  More
and more of The People and warriors came into the room, until Las finally sent
word that they needed no more reinforcements.

Las joined Ull by the control platform.  “Why is there no one
here?  Even the feral would know to leave someone on watch.”

“Perhaps because it doesn’t matter.”  responded Ull.  A
clawed finger pointed through the dome over their heads at the continuous
stream of charged particles pouring from all sides around the asteroid
protecting
My Flowing Streams
.  All around the room, The People looked
up, following Ull’s pointing hand.  The joyful whistling and chatter that had
begun when they entered the room without opposition slowly died.

“Whether it matters or not is our decision to make.” said
Las.  She made a sweeping gesture around her.  “And now that we have the
bridge, we will be making the decisions again.”

The lights went out, and the dome cover closed, blocking the
light from the nova. 

Las grabbed at Ull in the dark.  “What is happening?”

“The control desks are dead!” shouted Ull.  She pulled
herself from Las’s grasp.  “The feral is responsible for this!”

Las heard the faint sound of hatches opening all around
her.  From nearby came the voice of the feral, his words so loud they echoed
around the chamber:  “I address The People!  Has the council told you why we
are trapped here in the firestorm you saw through the dome?  Has the council
told you that they decided that you and your kits should die in their pools, killed
by the Kadiil?  Has the council told you that the humans on this ship are
trying to save us all in spite of your council?”

Las felt Ull brush by her.  From the darkness Ull screamed,
“It is time to close our bargain, feral!”

A blow from the dark knocked Tommy to the deck.  Before he
could scramble away, he felt claws around his neck and heard Ull’s voice in his
ear.  “I know we will all die here, but you will die first.  I have had enough
of you.”

The claws tightened, puncturing his skin.  He felt blood
running down his neck. 
Any time now!
he thought, and the lights came
on. 

“Ull, I would rather not kill you, but I will!”  The muzzle
of the pistol Sisle had carried since the rebellion pressed against Ull’s head. 
“Let him go.”

Tommy pushed Ull off and stood.  Behind him the hatch to the
lower deck stood open.  Around him and near other open floor hatches, warriors
armed with pistols and rifles covered the Nesu.  Unarmed warriors, without
collars, held collar-controlling cylinders where the recaptured warriors could
see them.

Tommy wiped the blood from his neck with the tail of his
shirt.  “You can kill your warriors, but so can we!” he shouted.  He stepped
onto the control platform.  “This must end.  Humans control this ship and we
will not return it to The People.  I have turned off the pumps in all your
chambers.  The chamber pools will soon be stagnant.  Choose whether your kits
will live or die!”

A mournful whistle filled chamber.  One of the Nesu stepped
forward.

“What did you mean when you spoke in the dark about the
council?”  Her grey muzzle turned back and forth between Ull and Las.

“Who are you?” Tommy asked.

“I am Whna, the senior mother in the family chamber where
Las was born.  She replaced me on the council.”

“What has the council told you about the Kadiil?” Tommy
asked.

“Nothing.”

“The Kadiil are trying to destroy this ship.”

“Why?”

“We were intercepted by raiders.  I used the drive to create
black holes to destroy their missiles.”  He looked down at his feet, then back
at the senior mother.  “The Kadiil objected and have been trying to destroy us
ever since.”

She made a grinding whistle.  “And what did the council
do?”  Her eyes focused on Las.

“They decided to have one last swim and let the Kadiil destroy
us.”

“Without telling the families!” she shrieked.  She leaped
past Tommy before he or Las could react and landed on Las with all her claws
extended, knocking her to the floor.  Whna’s hands dug into Las’s neck. 
Entrails and blood the color of burgundy spurted from Las’s abdomen where her
feet ripped through muscle.

#   #   #

Tommy sat alone and silent on the edge of the lake in Whna’s
family chamber.  Whna hovered in the otherwise empty water in front of him, her
eyes never leaving his.  Beginning some twenty feet to each side and extending
around the bank of the lake and the higher ground above, other of The People
watched, larger females in front, smaller males peering around the females, and
still smaller kits trying to look past or through the legs of the adults.  The
only sounds were that of the waterfall roaring down the far wall and the lesser
tinkling of the many streams running into the lake from the smaller pools
scattered around the edge of the large chamber.  The musky smell drying fur filled
the humid air.

“You are either very brave or very foolish,” Whna finally
said.  She turned quickly in the water, her gaze taking in the hundreds of The
People in the chamber, including the crowd standing in front of the door.  “If
we decide to kill you, your warriors will not be able to rescue you.”

Tommy voiced the low grinding whistle of Nesu displeasure.
“When I told you in the bridge that we may all die soon, you killed Las because
she had done nothing.”  He took off his shoes, rolled up his pants, and dangled
his feet in the water.  “Leegh and I are trying to save us all, so I do not
believe you will kill me.”  His sudden smile caused Whna to move away from him,
her tail churning under her.  “But if you do, the humans will seal your door
closed from the outside and drain this lake.” 

A moaning whistle passed in a wave around the shore as each
Nesu repeated his words to her neighbor.

His gesture took in all The People in the chamber.  “Do you
speak for them?”

“I speak for The People here.  I do not speak for all of The
People in the ship.  For that, a new council must be elected.”  Her tail
churned under her again.  “If you let us.”

“I am here to get your cooperation in defeating the Kadiil,”
Tommy responded.  “If that means a new council, so be it.”  He smiled again. 
“We cannot allow the new council to have the power it had before.  But perhaps
that will be better for you.  Your people gave its members too much
responsibility.

“First, let me tell you what has been happening and what we
are trying to do--“

#   #   #

Far too many people packed the hanger deck on
My Flowing
Streams.
  Tommy would have preferred to run the first test alone, but
everyone who had participated in the programming wanted to be involved.  He had
insisted there would probably be little to see, but they didn't care.  They
were doing their part to defeat the Kadiil.

Whne, reelected to The People’s council, also asked to be involved,
and Tommy had her join him at his station.  To accommodate her, Leegh, and the
members of Leegh’s family who were in the hanger, Tommy had instructed everyone
to use the lords’ language.

“Do you mind telling me what I am seeing?” Whne asked.  “I
recognize the drive module but nothing else.”

Tommy pointed at the boxes that lay on the deck, underneath
and on every side of the massive drive.  “We think the boxes are part of the
computer that ran the Kadiil ship.  The thin cables connecting them we believe
are for data.  The thicker cables should be for power.  Not that we know for
sure.  That is what we are here to find out.

“The data cables that were connected to the drive, sensors,
and radio are plugged into adapter boxes, custom made by the Communications
Guild, and routed into the Earth computers you see scattered around the
hanger's edge.  Other computers are set to receive the output from radio
transmitters in front of the disconnected wormhole generators.”

Even a month before, Tommy would have written all of the
programs on those computers himself.  But now, the urgency of their situation,
and the number of programs to be written, had forced him to give his students a
chance.  He had described what the programs should do and turned them over to
the teams.  Now, they were done, and Tommy was pleased with the quality of the
work. 

He saved two programs for himself:  the interface with the
drive, which he wrote with Leegh's mathematical help, and the program tying the
programs together over a network.  When one Earth computer reported an object
visible by radar to the Kadiil computer, all the other Earth computers would
“see” the same thing, or not, depending on what Tommy told them to do.  Several
large monitors on pedestals around the hanger displayed a depiction of what the
Kadiil computer would be forced to sense, and what it did as a response.

Wearing a protective suit, an artisan volunteer placed an
insulating mat and ladder under the drive supports and climbed to the power
plug.  "I am ready, Master Tommy."

Tommy checked the monitor.  All computers on the network
were ready.  "Pull the plug," he called.

"Well,” Tommy said when the connection came smoothly
apart.  “That was a non-event.  Now we see if Vent was correct in his theory.

“Plug it back in!" he shouted.

The thin cables between the boxes flickered with faint
light.  "Optical cable," Tommy said.  "I don't have a way to tap
into that."

"What did you say?" asked Whne.

"Nothing I can do anything about," Tommy
responded. 

"Vent, you were right!” Sanos called.  “The computer is
booting!" 

Tommy called to the artisan standing on the ladder.  “Be
ready to pull the plug again if I tell you to!"

He made some adjustments on the controlling computer, then
said, "The Kadiil computer is seeing otherwise empty space with
The
People's Fist
at one light second.  If it remembers what was happening, it
will jump in and attack."

On the large monitors, the programs attached to the gravity
sensors displayed the Kadiil computer’s command to view out to two light
seconds.  The Earth programs responded with a sighting of
The People's Fist
. 
This brought an immediate command from the Kadiil to focus on the ship.

The artisan monitoring the computers attached to the radio
transmitters shouted what Tommy could already see.  "It's trying to send
messages through the small dimensional tunnels!"

"We are receiving a series of matrices we have not seen
before,” Leegh called from the station where she monitored the fake connection
to the Kadiil drive.  “These could be commands to generate a dimensional tunnel
to move the ship."