At the end of a long ramp, a pair of massive vault doors stood. These opened silently, and we saw the tunnel beyond that went far deeper. We stepped inside, and the lovely planet outside was lost from view behind us.

  We walked for what seemed a very long time before we found a complex in the caverns far under the mountain range. It seemed we had descended into the very heart of the mountains.

  At last, Varrick appeared in a large chamber filled by a single massive dining table. Varrick sat at the head of it, with numerous guards lining the walls.

  The governor was eating voraciously when we got there. Most of the plates before him were laden with red meats cooked only lightly. Runnels of bloody juices ran from the corners of his mouth. It was somewhat disgusting to watch.

  He paused in his consumption to look up and belch. “I find the most entertaining element of this planet is the gustatory habits of these people. Most creatures that we inhabit are incapable of tasting anything, you see.”

  It was clear that pretenses were behind us. My eyes slid to the numerous guards that lined the walls. Either they were all deaf, or they were already converts with Tulk riding inside their guts. I tended to favor the latter theory.

  Varrick signaled us to come closer, and we did so with trepidation. I felt like we might be next on the possessed man’s menu. Eventually he paused in his eating, and he released an improbable belch. He regarded us carefully.

  “I’ve been informed that you were injured, Baron Trask. Please open your tunic and show me your sutures.”

  “What?” Trask laughed. “What an odd request. I can’t do that right now. Not in front of all these servants. It would be humiliating.”

  “Then we shall move to a place of greater seclusion. If you refuse, I’ll see that you’re both shot out of hand.”

  I nodded and stood up. “Let’s go to a private office.”

  Trask nodded to me. “I suggest we all retire, Governor.”

  Varrick’s eyes narrowed. “I won’t be destroyed so easily, humans. Oh yes, I know what you did to my brothers on your ship, Trask. I should have you all jabbed in the eyes and crushed like insects for that crime alone.”

  Trask and I exchanged glances.

  “Why not do it then?” I asked. “We are in your power.”

  Varrick nodded. He stood up and began to pace around the room. That seemed odd to me—he had taken on more than one human mannerism. Perhaps he was unaware of it.

  “You’ve made me curious. At first, I assumed this was nothing but a futile attempt at assassination. But now that you both came so far, without a weapon in hand—and yes, you’ve both been thoroughly scanned—I can’t fathom your reasoning.”

  “Maybe we’re mad-things,” Trask suggested. “Bent on suicidal revenge.”

  “Another easy assumption—but no, I don’t buy it. Both of you are vermin of the cosmos. You rarely put yourselves into danger of any kind without great profit to be won as a consequence. What, possibly, could be your motivation today?”

  Baron Trask looked at me. “It was your idea, mate. Tell him.”

  Varrick’s eyes turned to me with an expression of mild surprise.

  I began to speak then, and I told him of my meeting with a hive creature of his kind back on Ceti. I told him about our strange conversation, and of my theories concerning the Tulk and their plight.

  Varrick listened to it all, but I wasn’t able to easily discern his mood. He was, after all, an alien parasite residing within a human host.

  Chapter Twelve

  When I had finished, Varrick sat perfectly still for a time—a long time. He didn’t even blink. He resembled an android that had suddenly lost power.

  Baron Trask and I glanced at each other and fidgeted a bit. After all, we didn’t know how this particular being should behave. He wasn’t human, and we didn’t have much experience with his kind.

  Then, to my consternation, Varrick stood up suddenly and took several steps toward us. Up until that moment, he’d kept a very respectful distance. He knew we weren’t armed, as we’d been searched multiple times on the way down here—but he must have suspected we might be assassins anyway.

  Varrick peered into my eyes, then stepped sideways two paces and stared intently at Trask.

  “I don’t see how this is possible,” he said at last.

  “Uh… how what is possible, Governor?” I asked.

  He threw a hand at my face, but did not quite strike me. “Don’t use that term while we are alone. It’s condescending. You know what I am—but I’m not entirely sure what you might be…”

  “I’m an informed, well-traveled human, that’s all.”

  He nodded, looking down as if lost in thought. “I had not thought I would ever meet a human of such sophistication out here on the Fringe. My experience with your kind has been entirely visceral. My brothers are universally reviled and often killed out of hand if we are found out.”

  Baron Trask cleared his throat, but he wisely said nothing. I made sure I didn’t even look at him. He was thinking, of course, that I had made quite a point of killing the Tulk in the past. I’d already decided not to mention my exploits on Baden, for instance, where I’d probably killed thousands of them.

  Fortunately, Varrick didn’t seem to notice our distraction.

  “The fact you’ve encountered the real enemy—those beings who might well drive both your species and mine to extinction in time—this is what stuns me the most. How is this possible?”

  I told him then of the Sardez System. I gave him details about plundering an outpost for weapons—and at my astonishment that the Skaintz could survive under such extreme conditions.

  He nodded, listening intently. “What you describe, the snake-like form, it is a shrade in your language, yes?”

  “That’s what the Sardez called it.”

  “Interesting… and it is teamed with?”

  “A culus. A flying thing that stretches out its body into a plane to achieve limited flight.”

  “Correct… On worlds with dense atmospheres, a culus can fly for years, you know. They never have to land—not even to feed.”

  “What would they eat on the air currents?” Trask demanded.

  Varrick glanced at him as if he’d forgotten about him. “Floating debris. Gaseous seeds and creatures that eat such seeds. But none of that matters. The fact is that you must have seen them, or have met someone who has.”

  “I’ve fought them more than once.”

  Varrick looked startled. “Another shock. You don’t look like a prime warrior—not even for one of your kind.”

  I shrugged. “Appearances can be deceiving. In any case, we have a proposal to make.”

  Varrick looked suspicious. “Ah, of course. I can only imagine… do you demand that we leave your worlds in peace? Are you about to quote empty threats from the Conclave? If so, think again. The Conclave doesn’t care what happens to Sword World pirates. We can stay here as long as we wish. In time, we will infest every human on these wretched planets.”

  Baron Trask bristled and took a step forward. I put a restraining hand on his shoulder.

  “No Varrick,” I said, “we aren’t asking you to leave. We’re asking you to join forces with us. We need your help. We need your knowledge of this terrible enemy. We all must face them—either alone or together.”

  Varrick looked even more stunned than before. “Insanity. Trickery. Deceit!”

  “No,” I insisted. “There is another human world you’ve never heard of. It floats half-way between the Faustian Chain and the Conclave. It’s several lightyears apart from any other inhabited planet. The residents there are facing an invasion by the Skaintz. The enemy—our joint enemy—wishes to use their planet as a stepping-stone between the two star clusters.”

  Varrick blinked several times, but with only one eye. I realized he was experiencing some kind of tic or spasm. I pretended not to notice.

  “What you say can’t be… this cluster is safe. It is pristine!”

  “No—or at least, not for long. The enemy came before to the Sardez System. Even now, they are traveling again across the great ocean of space. You know it’s only a matter of time. Running from them—that can’t work forever.”

  “We will run out of galaxy eventually,” Varrick admitted. “Our scientists know this. But it should take generations for them to reach us here. A century at least!”

  Baron Trask grinned suddenly. He turned to me and laughed. “You were right, Gorman! These pathetic jellyfish are on the run. You’re wasting your breath on this one. He’s a coward like the rest. He won’t resist the enemy. He’ll just flee and annoy someone else when the Conclave falls.”

  Varrick’s left eyelid wasn’t doing so well. It had been flickering before, but now it flew wide—wider than any human eye should be able to stretch open.

  The eyeball under that fluttering lid was exposed, a white orb with a thousand outstanding capillaries gleaming wetly at us. We both curled a lip in disgust, but we didn’t say anything to the alien.

  “We have always fought them!” he rasped. “We fought them as no human has ever fought anything. It was your race that wanted to run after a time, as world after world fell. We burned some with the power of stars. We cracked continents and broke planets into chunks of floating debris!”

  Varrick stood tall now, taller than I realized he was at first. His eyes were filled with both insanity and the light of an alien intelligence, and I doubted any shred of the original Varrick’s psyche still existed inside that crazed skull.

  “What happened? How did you lose to them?” I asked quietly.

  “They are relentless. They consume everything after they make planetfall, and they expand their numbers very quickly. Moving from world to world like the creatures you once called locusts, they are unstoppable…”

  Baron Trask looked unimpressed. He crossed his arms over his chest.

  “Come on, Gorman. Let’s leave this coward to shiver and piss himself here in his bunker. We’ll go to the Vindari system alone if we have to. We’ll root out the enemy—or at least set up a viable defense for our people.”

  I glanced at him. He winked and I caught on immediately.

  I heaved a heavy sigh. “I guess you’re right. There is no fortitude to be found here. These sad aliens are broken creatures. They fear their own shadows and—”

  “Enough!” Varrick screeched.

  We fell silent and looked at him, eyebrows raised in mild concern.

  “This Tulk expedition will join you on your mad quest. You’re right, we can’t run much farther. We haven’t even conquered a quarter of the Sword Worlds. Resistance grows by the day, and there simply isn’t time to finish the job if the enemy is already at the gates… we’d calculated we would have far more time, you see.”

  “Well, you calculated wrong,” Trask began, but I cautioned him with a hand. He stepped away, grumbling.

  “I don’t have many troops to lend you,” Varrick said. He looked almost broken to me. “Just officers… the rest of the humans here won’t follow my lead into space—not by the thousands. They believe my mission is to clear Gladius of the very infection I represent. To do anything else—it would be unacceptable to them.”

  I nodded, thinking that over. “Actually, I wasn’t thinking of using your small invasive garrison. My idea is to gather a much larger force.”

  Then, I began to explain my plan. Both Varrick and Trask scoffed and seemed bemused by the large scope of it—but they listened to my scheme all the same.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Governor Varrick was quiet for a time after I’d finished laying out my plan. Trask, on the other hand, was quite noisy in voicing his opinions.

  “You’re telling me to suck it up, is that it?” he asked me angrily. “To just accept that the Tulk belong in the bodies and minds of my people? That’s too much, Gorman. I think we’d rather die fighting these aliens. Let the Skaintz come when they will.”

  I glanced at Varrick, but his mind still appeared to be on hold again. He was frozen in place, staring at nothing.

  Was he somehow communicating with his brothers? I had no way of knowing.

  Turning back to Trask, I sighed deeply. “You’re right. This isn’t a matter of justice. It isn’t even reasonable—but I think it’s the only way. We need to combine all our forces to have a chance. We can’t stop them if we’re fighting each other.”

  “Then get the Conclave to do it! They have a fleet bigger than all the Sword Worlds combined. Their androids alone could probably do the job.”

  I nodded patiently. “That might be true. But I’ve got no leverage with them. They’ll stay asleep until dozens of colony worlds fall. The entire Fringe would have to be invaded to get them to act. Just look at the Sword Brothers. Why didn’t they ever launch a fleet to snuff you out?”

  Trask grumbled for a few moments, sputtering angrily. At last, he calmed down. “You’re right, I give you that. We wouldn’t have been allowed to operate the way we do for so many long decades if what you say wasn’t true. But I still don’t know why we need the Tulk at all. Let’s go flush them out of the bodies of our men. Then, we’ll go to the stars as a single united force.”

  He held up a clenched fist to demonstrate.

  I opened my mouth to refute his point, but before I could speak, Varrick interrupted. “Gorman is right. I’ve been here for a year or more, Trask. Your people are everything those simpering cowards in the Conclave are not. You’re brave, you’re ambitious, you’re willing to die… but you’re also hopelessly divided.”

  Varrick stalked away and began to pace around the room. I thought that was odd. Did the Tulk normally pace when lost in thought? Or was that another affectation he’d picked up from living among us for so long?

  “No one—not you or the original Varrick—could unite your people into a single fist. Not unless the Skaintz were right here in orbit, invading your worlds. Even then, your people would hesitate to work together.”

  “What are you saying, parasite?” Trask demanded. “That we can’t beat your kind? We’ve done it before, you know. We’ll do it again.”

  “Perhaps. But now, we face an enemy that is greater than either of us. What the Tulk offer is organization and guidance. What you offer are the numbers, the ships, the fighting forces…”

  Trask blinked at him. “Are you serious? You’re just a bug clutching a good man’s liver—vermin desperate to stay in control. You really want us to let you order good humans to die like dogs for alien masters? Only to defeat another alien menace?”

  “Essentially… yes. But I understand that there must be something in it for you. How about an arrangement to leave here eventually?”

  Baron Trask cocked his head and squinted. “After we win together?”

  “No. Sooner than that. The Tulk will captain ships from Gladius and some from here.”

  “You think you can get Harkaman to join us?”

  “Yes. Our minds are not as dissimilar as yours. Logic to me will be logic to him. Using our carefully placed Tulk, we should have enough ships to face the Skaintz if we can get to this planet early on after the invasion. If we can get there fast enough, we might be able to repulse them in space, before they even gain a foothold.”

  “How long do you think we have?” Trask asked.

  “There’s no way to know that. But we must move as quickly as possible.”

  “What if we fail? What if they take Vindar?”

  Varrick began to pace. It was uncanny—he looked almost human. “Then… everything might be lost. I’m an old being, Trask. I was hatched before the Skaintz came to the Chain, before humanity had fully colonized these star clusters.”

  “That’s nearly three centuries back…”

  “Yes. That’s about right. I’ve seen a lot through the eyes of your kind. I know what this enemy is capable of.” Varrick sighed and began to pace again. “This is vastly disappointing to us, you have to understand. I’d hoped we could live among your kind peacefully without facing such great peril again—but the enemy is relentless. They do not sleep. They do not rest except to repair injuries. They are without pity or second-guessing of any kind.”

  Seeing that Trask was being swayed, I joined the conversation. “I’ve fought these creatures. Varrick knows what he’s talking about. Just one of them, half-frozen on an airless planetoid, almost took me and my entire crew out.”

  Baron Trask drew a deep breath and addressed Varrick. “Do you swear, creature, to vacate all human worlds once we defeat this common enemy?”

  Varrick laughed. It was an odd sound. “No. How can we do that? We’re stuck here, hiding among your planets. Just because we clear one world doesn’t mean that this war is over. We have to have somewhere to live and prepare for the next step in this struggle.”

  Baron Trask grumbled, and he proceeded to make offers and counteroffers. At last, long after I’d slumped against a wall in boredom, they struck a deal both could agree to.

  “I will go to Count Harkaman and plead your case,” Varrick explained as they recapped their plans. “While you will gather all the human captains you can to your banner here. We’ll then unite them and fly to Vindar with a vast number of ships and troops at our backs.”

  Trask liked the idea, and the two of them seemed to be in harmony at last. It was my turn, at that point, to throw some cold water on the plans.

  “Um… excuse me, my lords. But what about the nobles here on Flamberge? The knight-captains and their peers might well be convinced to fly to Gladius and purge the Tulk—but now we’re talking about sending a massive force to a planet they’ve never heard of.”

  Trask and Varrick each made a flippant gesture toward the other. Trask spoke first. “Varrick is their governor, their commander in a crisis. He’ll lead them where they must go.”

  Varrick looked at him in surprise. “I’d thought you were best suited to this exercise. You must convince your men that humanity must unite with the Tulk and fight together.”

  The talks immediately fell apart again, with both of them accusing the other of backing out on their offers of cooperation. After the argument began to wind down, I spoke again.