Then when something reared up out of the piled dead hides, a third thought struck me: one of shock. What this thing was, it was big. When I say it was big, I mean it was bigger than a jugger. It was more like the size of a tree-form Wur.

  As the head and body broke through, rubbery Vulbite carapaces slid away from it in all directions. That’s when I realized what it had to be.

  The creature was segmented, brown and shiny. The outer skin rippled, and the body was exceedingly long. It had been buried under the biggest mass of carapaces, like a snake hiding under a mass of eggshells.

  The body was much longer than it was tall. I’d seen her kind before, and she made me think of dragons found in the depths of the earth. If anything had ever looked like a dragon uncoiling in its lair, it was this Vulbite queen.

  Black, intelligent eyes swept over us. All of the fifty or so rifles we had left aimed at her in fear and disgust.

  “Hold your fire!” I boomed. “Don’t harm the queen—not if you ever want to see home again!”

  A few shots rang out, making the monster rear up higher, like a pissed snake. Noncoms ran among the jittery troops who had disobeyed, kicking their feet out from under them and shoving their faceplates into the ground. In Legion Varus, when an officer told you to cease fire, you did so immediately, or you might get shot yourself. In this case, there were only a few ass-kickings to be distributed.

  “Can we communicate with it?” Graves asked me as the queen tilted her great head this way and that. She had to know she was surrounded and vulnerable.

  “Damn straight I can! No lady has ever been born, be she alien, beaver or bug, that I couldn’t talk to!”

  Graves eyed me with very little trust, but he nodded just the same. “Go for it. Ask her out or something.”

  I advanced toward the beast. It watched me with black jewel-like eyes the size of basketballs. Ever seen a magnified picture of an ant or something? She was that kind of ugly, with face-horns and twitchy mouth-parts—the works.

  Natasha quickly approached me and stood in my shadow. “James… what are you doing? You can’t tame this thing.”

  “I’m not trying to. I’m trying to communicate, girl. Help me out.”

  She worked her tapper and her computer, fanning through a thousand dialects and translation apps. At last, she found something that sounded clicky. It was kind of like the sounds something with a lot of feet makes when it runs across your kitchen floor.

  “What are you saying to it?” I asked.

  “The basics. We’re friends, we won’t harm—”

  I reached and grabbed the computer from her hands. She complained, but she let me take it without too big of a fuss. She seemed all shuddery just being so close to this monstrous Vulbite.

  Quickly, I connected to her translation app and tapped out a message on my tapper.

  Queen Vulbite, I told her, you are a prisoner. Cooperate fully or you will die. All your eggs will die. All your larvae will die. All your children of every kind will die.

  The queen rotated the great head, looking at me with first the right eye, then the left. At last, she spoke. The translator talked for her.

  You are food-things. Food must not threaten the Source.

  “Uh…” I said, chewing that over. I switched the translator app into audio mode so I could talk instead of tap. “What’s this about a source? What source are we threatening?”

  I am the Queen. I am the Source.

  “The source of what?”

  The Source of Life, idiot-talking-food-thing.

  There it was again. I tell you, I’ve never managed to have a cordial discussion with an alien being of any kind that didn’t end up with them calling me a dummy. I’m not sure why that was, but it was true.

  “Listen up, we can kill you anytime we want to. You get that, right?”

  Again, the food-thing improperly threatens—

  “You shut the hell up, queen-bug. You’re nothing now. You’re lower than hog-shit as far as we’re concerned. We’ll burn you down, slice you up, and eat you for steaks!”

  “Um… McGill?” Natasha hissed, tapping on my shoulder. She seemed upset with the way I was talking to the Queen, but I didn’t care. We didn’t have time for niceties.

  What you describe is inconceivable. You are a food-creature. I’m here to consume. You must—

  Bending down, I picked up the belcher I’d dug my way through the roof with. Taking careful aim, I burned off one of the Vulbite’s two-meter-long legs with it.

  Snipping off legs was something I’d seen the Rigellian bears do with Vulbites, and that’s where I’d gotten the idea. Vulbites had lots of legs, a hundred or more, like centipedes. When those bastard bears wanted to punish them, they simply snipped off one or two of the extras.

  The creature broke off its little speech. It squirmed around like a snake and even made a hissing sound.

  “You done?” I demanded. “Do you understand who you’re talking to now?”

  When it had stopped thrashing around, it spoke again. You are the master. You are the one-who-must-be-obeyed. But know this, human. In the end, my kind will consume all of your kind. Your young will wriggle in our maws. Your—

  I burned her again, on the left side this time. Another leg fell off, steaming.

  Natasha tried to push my belcher down, to aim it at the floor, but I didn’t budge. She could hang from the barrel for all I cared. I wasn’t going to tolerate any more back-talk from this over-sized swamp-bug. She was going to start listening to me.

  You must stop your depredations!

  “I’ll stop when you admit defeat.”

  The creature paused for a few seconds, but then she spoke at last: I admit defeat.

  Smiling at last, I lowered the belcher. The granddaddy of all centipedes watched this closely.

  “Okay then, this is how things are going to go from now on.”

  I proceeded to explain the terms of her surrender, and she never said a word in response. She did do a quite a bit of hissing, however. I decided to take that as a clear sign that she was getting the message.

  -61-

  The queen was not entirely cooperative. While I got her to agree that she was our captive and would obey us, her troops didn’t seem to get the message.

  They broke open the main tunnel to the upper levels and came flooding in. We shot down a hundred, then a thousand. Finally, I began to get worried.

  “Sir,” Adjunct Barton said, “we’re running out of pellets in our snap-rifles.”

  “Shave metal off your kits. That can work at short range.”

  The truth was a snap-rifle was a very rugged and versatile piece of gear. It could take a beating and pound out a thousand rounds, each of which was about the size of a BB. Such tiny projectiles were able to deliver a surprising amount of kinetic force when accelerated to several thousand kilometers an hour. They struck roughly as hard as a traditional rifle bullet.

  Barton shook her head. “We’ve been doing that, but the juice for the accelerators is about gone, too. We need fresh battery packs.”

  Compressing my lips into a stubborn line, I suggested they tap the batteries that ran the heavy trooper air conditioning, rebreathers and the like. Harris immediately came up with his own complaints.

  “Sir? Did you tell Barton she could leach off my men? We can hardly light up a force-blade as it is. These rigs need every ounce of power we have left to keep the auto-assist exoskeleton working. Without that, armor is just a quarter ton of dead weight.”

  I thought it over, and I nodded. “You’re right. Have the men shed their armor. Transfer all power to weapons and basic survival.”

  “Say what? Heavy troopers without armor? What’s the point?”

  I almost reached for him and gave him a shaking, but I stopped myself. We were all tired and frustrated.

  “Adjunct Harris, listen up. We’re in a bad way. A heavy trooper in armor isn’t worth much if he can’t fire his weapon. That’s all that matters now.”

  Harris looked around to where a group of techs were working on the broken gateway system. They appeared dejected and toyed with the disassembled parts listlessly.

  “It’s that bad, huh?” he asked. “I’d hoped Natasha could pull another miracle out of her rear end. But we’re not getting out of here, are we?”

  “I doubt it,” I said. “But I’ve still got some options.”

  “Such as?”

  I pointed grimly at the towering queen Vulbite. She was quietly watching all of us, and her alien intelligence was obvious even to me.

  Harris released a grim laugh. “I say we wire-up that big termite. If we all die, at least she’ll die too.”

  Not answering him, I walked toward the monstrous alien. He wandered off to harass Graves next. I knew he would try to get all my orders changed around, but I didn’t care. Right now, I was in charge of the op.

  The queen immediately turned and dipped her head to get a good look at me as I approached.

  “Your Royal Highness,” I said, “can I have a word with you?”

  “Speak, egg-thief.”

  I didn’t know what an egg-thief was, but I’ve been around long enough to know when I’m being insulted. I let that slide right off me and smiled. “What’s your role here, Queenie?”

  The monster regarded me with the giant black jewel that served as her left eye, then with the right. I was too small and close for both her wide-set eyes to see me at once.

  “I am the birth-mother. I am the life-giver. I am the beginning and the end of all things.”

  “That’s real nice,” I said, “but why are you down here all by yourself? Why aren’t there other Vulbites feeding you and taking away your newborn young?”

  The great beast coiled up a little. “Because I’m not producing my precious eggs. I’m resting, as none of my daughters are necessary.”

  “Your daughters—?” I began, but was rudely brushed aside.

  Harris was back, and this time he had Graves with him.

  Graves looked the giant Vulbite up and down, then turned to me. “Trying to score, McGill?”

  “Not quite like you’d imagine, sir.”

  As I watched, he hefted up a belcher. He aimed it at the huge alien, who stood motionless.

  “Sir, that creature is our prisoner,” I told him.

  “That’s right, but I figure she needs a little encouragement.”

  “Uh…”

  Without a big speech or other preamble, Graves sighted and fired the belcher point blank up into the queen’s face. He nailed an eye and it slagged.

  The queen reared up and began to buck around the cave. A few soldiers were knocked flat and one light trooper was crushed.

  “Dammit, Primus!” I shouted, grabbing onto the belcher. “I was just getting somewhere by talking to her.”

  “You’re too soft on aliens, McGill. They only understand one thing—if you’re lucky.”

  “Scale-mites!” the queen boomed, raging. “Egg-thieves! Cretinous monsters!”

  “Uh… I’m sorry about that, queen. Some of the men here are real hotheads.”

  “I’m your superior officer, McGill,” Graves said sternly. “And I’m standing right here!”

  I paid no attention to him. The queen’s one good eye was still watching me, and she kept me visible at all times by oddly tilting her head. The other side dripped like melted wax.

  “Let me tell you how you can be rid of us,” I told the queen. “Get your Vulbites to stop attacking for starters. Then, tell them to bring us technicians to repair our gateway posts. When that happens we’ll leave your world, and you, in peace.”

  “That can’t be done.”

  “Why not?”

  Previously, when I’d questioned her, she’d refused to give straightforward answers. Now, after being shot by Graves, she seemed to be in a more forthcoming mood.

  “I will tell you. Vulbites do not have such technicians. Our gateways are built off-world by others.”

  “Off-world? You mean by Rigel?”

  “Yes.”

  I thought that over for a second. A ruckus began at the tunnel entrance, and our men took cover.

  “They’re coming again!” Harris shouted. “Positions, everyone!”

  Another dark wave of enemy soldiers rushed in. They were gunned down without a qualm. They no longer bothered with stealth suits, having either run out of them, or decided they weren’t effective like they’d been in the past.

  I pointed at the tunnel mouth and the dying Vulbites. “Brave soldiers. Your children are dying to save you. Can’t you tell them to stop? To allow us to leave this place?”

  “They are doing what they were created to do,” she said. “They will kill you all in the end, and they know this. It makes them eager to give up their lives.”

  “Great… listen, where is the man from Rigel?”

  “There is no man from Rigel.”

  “I mean those little bear-looking dudes. Your masters.”

  “Those creatures are not in this chamber.”

  Sensing an opening, I took a step forward. She eyed the belcher in my hands warily.

  “Is he in this nest? Someplace else?”

  “Yes.”

  I smiled. “Can you contact him?”

  The great queen, with her damaged head still cocked, stared down at me. “I am in contact with him now. He is watching these proceeding with great interest.”

  “Uh…” I said, looking her over for cameras and the like. I didn’t see any, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. A camera eye could be the size of a bacterium these days. “Talk to him. Call him, bring him here!”

  “There is no need,” she said. “He was alarmed by your violent actions toward me, and he is coming here right now to put a stop to it.”

  She seemed somewhat pleased with herself as she said this. I suspected she was hoping I would get my comeuppance when her master arrived. I didn’t say anything else, but left to stand ready at the entrance tunnel. It would have been rude to argue with a lady-alien—no matter how big she was—right here in her own home.

  No delegation from Rigel arrived. I’d hoped they might march down the tunnel, demanding to parlay. Instead, they sent a floating drone.

  Fearing it was a bomb, my men shot it down immediately. I had one of the techs rush up and inspect it.

  “Any explosives?”

  “Negative. It’s… I would guess it’s a com-link bot.”

  “It’s going to blow up!” Harris insisted. “You’re a fool if you pick it up, McGill! A fool!”

  Walking forward, I examined the broken drone. It looked harmless. I dropped it in the dirt.

  Before I could return to our hastily built wall of earth that provided cover for our troops, another drone came buzzing along.

  “Down, sir!” a specialist called out, sighting on the drone.

  I got between him and the second messenger. “Just hold on a minute!”

  There were calls of “it could be a bomb!” but I ignored all that. If it was a bomb, it might be a relief. I was getting tired of this mission, and I wanted to either finish it or die. Either way, it would be over and done with.

  Snatching the drone from the air, I examined it. Buttons built for activation were on the side of the unit. Shrugging, I pushed one.

  The drone stopped buzzing and began to make clicking sounds. I got my tapper out and activated the translation matrix.

  “…recalcitrant criminals…” my tapper said. “…to those without redemption, without respect, without…”

  “Shut up!” I told the drone, and it quieted. “Who is this?”

  “You are speaking with Viceroy Chaska. I am in charge of the planetary garrison here.”

  “Is that right? Okay, Chaska, let’s talk terms.”

  “You will surrender. You will be expunged immediately for your crimes. There can be no terms.”

  “Too bad you feel that way. I’m afraid I’m going to have to kill old Queenie here to make a point.”

  The queen had been listening in. Upon hearing what we said, she slithered away back to her original bed-pile of slippery carapaces.

  “It’s too bad,” I said. “She thinks quite a lot of herself. I bet old Squanto would handle things differently.”

  “What do you know of Squanto?”

  “As a matter of fact, I know him quite well. He’s almost a friend of mine.”

  “How can this be? What is your name, Earthman?”

  “I’m Centurion James McGill,” I said proudly. “Squanto and I, we go way back.”

  The communications drone was quiet for a moment. Then, after a time, it spoke again.

  “This is High Lord Squanto of Rigel,” another voice said. It was familiar to me, despite the fact the translator made a garbling mess of Rigellian speech. “Are you truly the one I seek?”

  “That’s right, Squanto old buddy! I’m McGill, come here to mend fences. If we’ve done you and yours any harm, let me be the bigger man and apologize—”

  “Silence, beast!” Squanto shouted. “I’m calling over a deep-link pathway, but my word is that of a deity on this planet. You shall be destroyed. Everything in that chamber shall be destroyed.”

  “Yeah? Even the queen lady I’ve been romancing for the last hour or so?”

  “She is replaceable. All slaves are replaceable. Her loss will be regrettable, but no price is too much to pay to end your existence, McGill.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that, Squanto.”

  So saying, I crushed the drone in my hands and dropped it. I walked back to the queen, who had been listening closely.

  “You hear that, your worship? Squanto just ordered that you, me, and everything in this place be destroyed. What do you think about that?”

  “Improper. Poor decorum. Rule-breaking. Treaty expunged.”

  “I take it that you’re not happy? That maybe Squanto and his companions should be taught a lesson?”

  “Instruction would be fruitless with the treacherous and cruel masters from Rigel.”

  “Right you are. I’ll tell you what, if you can get these tunnel-rats of yours to stop attacking us, and maybe to bring a few items we need—I can get you out of this. I can see to it that we all live to see another day.”