He heard the slow closing of the basement door and then the footsteps descending the stairs.
“Where are they now?” he whispered.
“At the bottom,” Archie said. “They are coming. I think the woman is—”
“Dad.” Richard heard a voice from his past. “Where are you, Dad?”
“Holy shit! It’s Katie,” Richard said. “Over here,” he added, too loud, trying to contain his excitement.
A very small flashlight beam wandered around the wall behind his mattress and eventually landed on his bearded face. A few seconds later Katie tripped over Archie and literally fell into her father’s arms.
She kissed and hugged him, tears running down her cheeks. Richard was so startled by the entire event that he was at first unable to respond to any of Katie’s questions. “Yes… yes, I’m fine,” he said eventually. “I can’t believe it’s you… Katie, oh, Katie… Oh, yes, that gray mass over there, the one you kicked a moment ago, is my friend and fellow prisoner, Archie the octospider.”
Several seconds later Richard exchanged a firm handshake in the dark with a man Katie introduced only as her “friend.” “We don’t have much time,” Katie said hurriedly after several minutes of conversation about the family. “We’ve short-circuited the power systems in this entire residential area, and they should be repaired before too much longer.”
“Are we going to escape, then?” Richard asked.
“No,” Katie said. “They would certainly catch and kill you… I just wanted to see you. When I heard the rumor that you were being held somewhere in New Eden… Oh, Daddy, how I have missed you! I love you so very much.”
Richard put his arms around his daughter and held her as she cried. She felt so thin and fragile in his arms. “I love you too, Katie,” Richard said. “Here,” he added, pulling away slightly, “shine the light on your face… Let me see your beautiful eyes.”
“No, Daddy,” Katie said, burying herself again in his embrace. “I look old and used… I want you to remember me as I was. I have lived a hard—”
“It’s unlikely that they will be keeping you here much longer, Mr. Wakefield,” the male voice in the dark interrupted. “Almost everyone in the colony has heard the story of your appearance at the soldiers’ camp.”
“Are you all right, Daddy?” Katie said after a short silence. “Are they feeding you properly?”
“I’m fine, Katie… but what have you been doing? Are you happy?”
“I’ve had another promotion,” she said rapidly. “And my new apartment is beautiful. You should see it… And I have a friend who cares about me.”
“I’m so glad,” Richard said as Franz reminded Katie that they needed to be going. “You were always the smartest of the children… You deserve some happiness.”
Katie suddenly began sobbing and lowered her head against her father’s chest. “Daddy, oh, Daddy,” she said through her tears, “please hold me.”
Richard put his arms around his daughter. “What is it, Katie?” he said softly.
“I don’t want to lie to you,” Katie said. “I work for Nakamura, managing prostitutes. And I’m a drug addict… a complete and total drug addict.”
Katie cried for a long time. Richard held her tightly and patted her on the back. “But I do love you, Daddy,” Katie said when she finally raised her head. “I always have, and I always will… I’m terribly sorry that I have disappointed you.”
“Katie, we must be leaving now,” Franz said firmly. “If the power is restored while we are still in the house, we’ll be in deep shit.”
Katie kissed her father hurriedly on the lips and stroked his beard affectionately with her fingers one final time. ‘Take care of yourself, Daddy,” she said. “And don’t give up hope.”
The flashlight beam was a thin finger of light preceding the visiting pair as they quickly crossed the room to the bottom of the stairs. “Good-bye, Daddy,” Katie said.
“I love you too, Katie,” Richard said as he heard the sound of his daughter’s feet running up the stairs.
5
The octospider on the table was unconscious. Nicole handed Dr. Blue the small plastic container that the alien physician had requested and watched as the tiny creatures were dumped onto the greenish black fluid that covered the open wound. In less than a minute the fluid was gone and her octospider colleague deftly sewed up the incision using the forward five centimeters of three of her tentacles.
“That’s the last one for today,” Dr. Blue said in color. “As always, Nicole, we thank you for your help.”
The two of them walked together out of the operating area into an adjacent room. Nicole had not yet accustomed herself to the cleaning process. She took a deep breath before removing her protective gown and placing her arms in a large bowl filled with dozens of silverfish like animals. Nicole fought against her personal revulsion as the slimy things clambered all over her arms and hands.
“I know this part is not pleasant for you,” Dr. Blue said, “but we really have no choice now that the forward water supply has been contaminated by the bombing. And we can’t take a chance that anything here might be toxic for you.”
“Is everything destroyed north of the forest?” Nicole asked while Dr. Blue finished cleaning herself up.
“Almost,” the octospider replied. “And it looks as if the human engineers have now finished their modifications to the helicopters. The Chief Optimizer fears that they will make their first flights over the forest in another week or two.”
“And there have been no replies to the messages you have sent?”
“None at all. We know that Nakamura has read them… but the humans captured and killed the last messenger near the power plant-despite the fact that our octospider was carrying a white flag.”
Nicole sighed. She remembered something Max had said the night before when she had expressed bewilderment that Nakamura was ignoring all the messages. “Of course he is,” Max had shouted angrily. “That man understands nothing but force. All those stupid messages say is that the octos want peace and will be forced to defend themselves if the humans don’t desist. The threats that follow are meaningless. What is Nakamura to think when his troops and helicopters move around unimpeded, destroying everything in sight? Hasn’t the Chief Optimizer learned anything about humans? The octospiders must engage Nakamura’s army in some kind of battle.”
“That’s not their way,” Nicole had replied. ‘They do not involve themselves in skirmishes or limited wars. They only fight when their survival is threatened. The messages have spelled this all out very carefully and have repeatedly urged Nakamura to talk to Richard and Archie.”
In the hospital, Dr. Blue was flashing colors at Nicole. She shook her head and returned to the present. “Are you going to wait today for Benjy?” the octospider asked. “Or will you go directly over to the administrative center?”
Nicole checked her watch. “I think I’ll go now. It usually takes me a couple of hours to digest all the quadroid data from the day before. So much is happening. Please tell Benjy to tell the others that I’ll be home for dinner.”
She walked out of the hospital a few minutes later and headed for the administrative center. Even though it was daytime, the streets of the Emerald City were nearly deserted. Nicole passed three octospiders, all hurrying on the other side of the road, and a pair of crab biots, who looked strangely out of place. Dr. Blue had told Nicole that the crab biots had been recruited for Emerald City garbage duty.
The city has changed so much since the decree, Nicole thought. Most of the older octos are now over in the war domain. And we never saw a single biot here until a month ago, after most of the support creatures had supposedly been moved to another location. Max thinks many of them might have been terminated because of the shortages. Max always thinks the worst of the octospiders.
Often after work Nicole would accompany Benjy to the transport stop. Her son was also helping the shorthanded staff at the hospital. As Benjy had become more aware of what was occurring in the Emerald City, it had grown increasingly difficult for Nicole to hide the seriousness of their situation.
“Why are our people fighting against the octospiders?” Benjy had asked the previous week. “Don’t they know
