To Miko’s pleasant surprise, Usk clacked out of one of the cargo hatches, with a bright step and a glint in his insect red eyes.
Zaul stood arms akimbo, his face a sombre mask. To one side, his female aide stood outfitted in her golden helm, and on the other side poised Lexia, her face kindled with curiosity.
“Where’d you get the ships?” inquired Sket.
“Our battle cruisers captured several L-Doraxu craft.” Zaul motioned. “We are dissecting and analyzing them now.”
Miko gave a wry grunt.
“You must tell us everything you know about these ships,” urged the Empress. “We have been studying them and the locusts’ feeding habits, which are, beyond any words, revolting.”
Fenli chortled. “You think? What makes you so interested in that now?”
“Besides the fact that they kidnapped our Empress?” retorted Zaul. “Now answer the question.”
“I spent several years in a miserable tank,” said Fenli sullenly. “All with these things leeching off my life force. Is that enough? If this insect here hadn’t saved our lives so many dozens of times, I’d gut him on the spot.”
“Not a friendly way to talk about your ally,” remarked Lexia.
“What do you know about allies?” snapped Fenli. “Are we prisoners here, or can we go?”
Lexia motioned Usk forward. The locust lifted a pincered hand, greatly restored in what could only be healing tanks. His antenna was taking longer to grow back.
The Empress looked approvingly at him. “It was the least I could do for the insect. It did, after all, aid in our escape.”
Zaul looked on with a firmed lip and a glower.
Fenli waved an arm. “What are your plans for us?”
“My wish is we dump you on the nearest habitable planet and bill you for transport,” grunted Zaul.
“Colonel—” said Lexia sternly. “We will rendezvous with a fleet of locusts and Zikri, following an encoded signal emanating from Sitri’s planet.”
Miko practically choked. “You can’t be serious? Zikri? You saw what they can do—”
“The details are irrelevant,” cut in Lexia. “The locusts are our main concern. Tell us more about them.”
Miko rubbed his brow in apprehension. “Parasites. They need human or animal life energy to feed upon. They don’t outright devour them. They feed on their essence through the fluid in the tank with the help of some advanced science.” He pointed to an empty glass tank hauled out in the open, its broken macabre trailing drip, and the mysterious stoppering apparatus.
“We already know that,” scoffed Zaul. He kicked the grimy glass tank and sent the stopper’s wires and circuitry spilling to further ruin. “What of their feeding schedules? Their slave runs, their methods? Any information that can help us stop them from capturing more of our citizens?”
Miko shook his head. “I was not among them long enough to know such details. All I saw was a ghoulish tapestry of heads in the station’s core webbed in a plasmic slime. I believe it powers their sinister amalgamators.”
Lexia shivered. “Fenli?”
The cargo man shrugged. “I was there for years. I saw them come and go. I watched through the glass as if I were a museum piece. For the most part I stayed in one of their labs. The scientists of that locust scum would dissect all kinds of creatures from far worlds—birds, fish, humanoids, you name it, in ever more grisly ways. Then they’d experiment with tanking them. Attaching wires and circuitry up to their intravenous stoppers. The grotesque things I saw would turn your stomach. And yet, I could barely make sense of it all.”
Lexia’s lip quivered and she turned to Miko. “And the Zikri, you had contact with them?”
“The one you saw absorbing the flesh of B & D. I spent many months with her. They’re pirates and strong fighters, resilient beyond imagining. Hard, if not impossible to kill.”
Star crinkled up her face in horror. “You spent time with that repulsive thing?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” murmured Miko.
Zaul frowned. “This is getting us nowhere, Empress. I suggest we send these people to the holding bay and focus on battle tactics, not act as researchers of Mentera and Zikri culture.”
“I disagree, Zaul. These people have had intimate contact with our enemies. Any information that may help us protect our world is valuable. I was in a tank for a relatively short period, so I could not observe much.”
Zaul dipped back. A sudden voice echoed in his earpiece. He listened and frowned. “Are you sure?” He drew the Empress aside.
Miko caught the murmurings of a heated conversation: “We could finish this now,” came Lexia’s whisper.
The Empress paused, a sign which Zaul seemed to take as positive. He pounded a fist against the ship’s hull. “Recommendation to launch an attack immediately!”
Miko stiffened, remembering the menace of the Zikri. He exchanged glances with Fenli. Both stared at the locust craft.
Fenli blinked. “You don’t think—?”
“Perfect for decoys.”
“What do you mean ‘decoys’?” demanded Zaul, overhearing their conversation.
“Fly the locust ships in, have them rain fire on the Zikri. The Zikri will assume treachery. Let the Zikri destroy the locusts. The locusts will retaliate and destroy the Zikri. There’s your war.”
A stunned silence came over Zaul and Lexia.
“It may just work.” An expression of vindictive delight crossed Lexia’s face.
“It may, Empress, but I don’t want these amateurs in my war room,” said Zaul, “muddying up my plans with their half-baked—”
“Colonel, they have survived locust attacks and Jakru counter bombs,” she pointed out. “Miko has escaped Zikri subjugation. These survivors may be able to turn the tide against our enemy and end this war. Take them into the war room; brief them on our intel.”
Zaul crossed his arms. “Absolutely not.”
“’Tis my wish, Colonel.
