We landed in the same stasis pod, and the lid slid shut over us.
Damn.
Delight sounded almost apologetic.
“Sorry, Cutter.”
27—Spider Bait
I don’t know how Odyssey’s medical team separated us. I only know that when they pulled me out of stasis, they pulled me out alone—and I took the shuttle back down to K’Kavor the next morning.
“How’s Alice?” I asked, when doctors brought me out, and they looked somber.
“We’ll know in a couple of months, when we’ve tweaked the antivenin. For now, she’s on hold.”
Which meant the venom was on hold, as well. I was lucky I’d been closest the hinges, when we’d been holding the door. Not one of the creatures near me had managed to extend its fangs around the edge. Alice hadn’t been so fortunate.
It was a sobering thought, and I found myself grateful to be returning planetside. I wondered if the vespis had captured the king, if they’d rescued the prisoners before they could be harmed, if…
I remembered what the humans had been doing when Alice and I had burst into the hangar, and tried to push the memories away. Why had I left any of them alive?
“Because I asked you to,” Delight said, and she did not sound sorry. “We can save most of them.”
By that, I hoped she was referring to the people who hadn’t been in the slaughterhouse of their own free will. The others weren’t my concern.
“Most of the torturers can be saved, too, and we need the intel they’re bringing to the party. After that, they’ll be joining Andreus, and a more fitting punishment, there cannot be.”
I wanted to know if the vespis had been able to deal with the creatures in the prefab, but it was a question I’d have to save for later, because the shuttle touched down. The Odyssey soldier charged with returning me to the planet, held his hand to his ear, shielding his comms device. When he’d given an affirmative, he looked towards me.
“You’re first out,” he said. “Queen Tekravzary demands it.”
I felt my cheeks grow cold at the thought, and I tried to think of ways in which I might have made the queen angry. I had left the battlefield early. Granted, I had left it in the company of her guards, but then I’d left it without even their permission. My heart sank.
I hoped she didn’t think I had betrayed her. I sighed, and was on my feet before the shuttle had fully settled. Well aware the trooper was watching me, I took a deep breath, shrugged, and turned to face the hatch. His expression gave nothing away, as I looked out towards the field.
No one else in the cabin moved, and I figured I was the only drop-off. I didn’t look back as I descended the stairs to the landing field. A walkway greeted me, with a small crowd of vespis and humans lined up on either side. It was as weird as hell, especially when they saw me and began cheering.
I looked back at the shuttle, trying to see who had earned their applause. It was a puzzle when there was no-one walking down the stairs behind me. It was more of a puzzle when laughter rippled through the crowd, but since that couldn’t be directed at me, either, I didn’t let it bother me.
I lifted my head and looked for the queen. If she had demanded I debark first, then surely she would be waiting to see me… or maybe she had sent T’Kit. I looked towards the end of the walkway, and was surprised to see the small stage that had been erected there. I was also surprised to see that it was empty.
Once again, I looked behind me to see who else they were expecting, and then to the sky for another incoming transport. Again, laughter rippled through the crowd. This time, the laughter bothered me, and I had trouble keeping my face to a mask of professional blankness. After all, I had been ordered off first. I couldn’t understand who these people were waiting for.
Whoever it was, I wished they’d hurry up. This was getting embarrassing.
I made it to the end of the walkway, and went to walk around the edge of the stage, only to find my path blocked by a single, golden, vespis warrior.
“The queen…” I began, and it flicked an antenna at the stage.
“You are to wait there,” it said, and I inclined my head towards it.
I turned back to the stage, and I stopped.
“Are you sure?” I asked, and it made a shooing motion with its forelimbs.
“The queen demands it.”
Well, I thought, if the queen demands it…
I mounted the stairs, and walked over to the closest chair.
The stage remained unoccupied.
“Where is everyone?” I thought, sending the question out through my implant.
My very empty implant. The implant that was usually crowded with every man and his dog just when I wanted a little privacy. Mack laughed.
“You don’t just want a little privacy, Cutter,” he said. “You want all the privacy.”
His words made me smile, and I looked around, expecting to see him close by.
“We’re coming,” he assured me. “The queen was… unexpectedly delayed.”
“Is she all right?”
“Yes. Just take a seat. We will be there shortly.”
I don’t know what was more unnerving: the fact that Mack was talking to me, but was nowhere in sight, the fact there was no one there to greet me, or the way the people who had lined either side of the walkway were now coming to stand in front of the dais.
And they were all looking at me.
I watched them, trying not to stare, but feeling uneasy all the same. At the foot of the stage the vespis warrior had been joined by another, the arrival mirrored by two more on the other side.
Just what the ever-loving fuck was going on?
I’d gone from feeling uneasy to thinking I needed to unpack
