19: A Plan

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“We should build a train,” Kieth said.

We’d found them on the bridge, having finished their tour, laughing and applauding as Glath turned into various aliens and objects for their entertainment. I’d checked that the shyr was still imprisoned (she was, but maybe we should switch over to the other ship, just in case?), answered some of Kate’s questions when she glanced at the external cameras (“hey, I don’t want to alarm anyoene, but there’s a giant space squid outside the ship”), and here we were.

“A train,” I said.

“A giant space train! To take all the ahlda where they need to go! Schwoom!” He moved his hands in a broad arc to illustrate the movement of the space train.

“That… could be workable,” Kate said.

“It could?” I asked.

“Well, yes. Transport is a big part f our issue here. If we can learn what actually attracts ahlda to a nest, we don’t have to attract them here. We can set up a depot somewhere outside the Empires and ship them in. We’d need a network, not a single train, and we’d have to be able to provide information on the nests we link to for them to choose, but if we can convince the Empires of the benefit…”

“A travel agency? You want to set up a travel agency for alien sex tourists?”

“I don’t think the ahlda have sex, it sounds like they just lay unfertilised eggs. But yes.”

“Fuck,” I said, momentarily forgetting that children were in earshot. “Goddamnit. That might work.”

“It’d be diplomatically complicated,” Kate said. “And we don’t have the resources or the information to get started, let alone the territory or the technology. This is something that we need the cooperation of the aljik to do. Realistically, it’s something that the aljk are going to have to do, with a little bit of help from us.”

“It’s not going to be easy to convince Tatik, or indeed I suspect any of Anta’s descendant Queens except for the rogue Princess, to cooperate with humans,” I point out. “She doesn’t trust us, and honestly, Queens don’t seem very good at cooperation. They run a nest and everyone in the nest cooperates within the nest. This still comes down to asking nests to cooperate with each other, which — ”

“No,” Kate said, “it doesn’t. It comes down to asking multiple nests, separately, to cooperate with us. And we only need to start with one, to get a place built. And we know that the aljik here do have ways of cooperating with other species, via trading for their services. We just need to be able to offer Tatik something in trade that’s worth what we want from her.”

“That,” I said, “might be possible.” I retrieved the Crown Jewel again.

I’d forgotten that most of my crew didn’t know I had it. Shock swept across the bridge. Glath got to explaining the situation and calming everyone down while I ignored them all and focused on my family.

“What is that?” Derek asked.

“It’s a very precious jewel that was stolen from Queen Tatik,” I explain.

“And you think that’ll be worth her help setting this up?” Kate asked.

“Maybe. Maybe not. It’d be a big risk, and I don’t want to give her a shot at getting it unless I’m sure. But you know what would definitely be enough? This, and access to all the computers on the Heart Planet that it currently connects to. I’m sure they’re just running those computers with manual inputs or whatever, but I bet this all-access key can also change all the computer passwords. A Queen would want to be able to lock people out of her computers as well as control them, right?”

“I’m sure some of the aljik would no for sure,” Kate said. “You want to conquer the Empire?”

“We don’t have to conquer the whole thing. We just have to hold some of their most important equipment hostage. Of course, that means getting close enough to use it, and also having a way to use it. I’m told it interfaces with the brain of the Queen who wears it.”

“We’re not going to be able to use it,” Kate said. “As I said before. There’s simply no way that our biology is compatible like that.”

“I’m sure you’re right, but do you think another aljik might be able to use it?”

“I… have no idea.”

“Do you think we have anything to lose by finding out?”

“… Hmm. Of course, you realise the danger of sending any of your aljk into that nest. They accept you as a Queen for now, without any other options, but if you send them to Tatik…”

“Yeah. That’s a risk. We need someone who can avoid her entirely, or who’ll act for us anyway because they believe it’s in her best interests, or who’s immune to her charms.” I glanced at the camera feed showing the shyr in her cell. “I have a plan.”

—————————-

“The shyr have returned,” Queen Tatik tells the rogue, who looks up at her with her usual smug guile.

“Oh? And?”

“And all neighbouring Empires are experiencing the same drop in ahlda visitors. Nobody seems to know why, including the ahlda. So now that you have completely wasted everybody’s time… your end of the bargain.”

“The Crown Jewel isn’t on this planet.”

Tatik darts forward, pressing her lances to the rogue’s chest. The rogue doesn’t even try to move. “You lied to me!”

“Of course I did. We made no trade on the information that the jewel was here, did we, sister?”

“Except the trade for your life – ”

“You’ve made no secret of the fact that you are still going to kill me. No such trade has been made.”

“But we have made a trade now. I sent the shyr out and got the information. So, where is it?”

“The only other place it could be, of course. I left it with my crew when they escaped the planet.”

“Traitor! They’ll take it straight to a neighbouring Empire and leave us ripe for invasion!”

“Will they? That’s quite a distance to travel through your Empire. The fact that they haven’t surrendered and reintegrated here certainly says a lot about your influence as a Queen, doesn’t – ”

Tatik pressed one of her lance arms into her sister’s chest until the carapace started to split. “And now,” she said, “I have no more use for you. And it is time to finish our regency fight.”

The rogue didn’t try to back away. She didn’t try to dodge, or fight.

Tatik paused. Then backed away.

The rogue cocked her head quizzically. “Sister?”

“You might still be useful,” she said. “You lied to me once about the Jewel’s location. I need you alive until I can verify that you haven’t lied again.”

————————-

Captivity was getting monotonous.

Of all my skills, I’ve never had a good internal sense of time. So I don’t know how long it was before Charlie, the impostor Queen, showed up at me cell and walked straight in like she had nothing to fear.

She looked at me and pulled the skin up off her teeth, an expression I remembered from Kate right before she launched me into space and stole my ship.

“Good news! I’ve decided to accept your proposal! Shall we talk about overthrowing the Empire?”

————————

Captain Sil had been having a weird time. So when the aliens inexplicably withdrew entirely from his ship, moving all of their possessions over to the Oval Nine, and a shyr boarded, all brash and secretive and taking immediate command, he wasn’t surprised. Mostly, he felt relief. He wasn’t sure how to be Captain, but he’d never seen a shyr doing anything she was less that sure about and highly competent at. (Of course, he’d hardly ever seen a shyr at all, maybe they failed all the time in the shadows, but best not to dwell on that right now.) Technically, it was his ship and she had no right to take command, but after being hijacked by mysterious aliens who’d almost broke the thing in half, this was an upgrade.

Maybe he could still salvage some of his pride, or at the very least, have her take some of the heat for whatever exactly had happened out here. At least he wouldn’t be the one reporting it to Queen Tatik.

Which was where they were going. Back home to the Heart Planet.

Sil hadn’t expected captaining a patrol ship to be like this.

————————-

“Do you think we can trust her?” I asked Kate when we came out of dash. It had been a bit of a gamble, dashing before the shuttle carrying the shyr had even docked with the Red Four, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to hang around long enough to let her get control of any of the Red Four’s weapons.

“What? Trust her? Fuck no.”

“Yeah, I phrased that badly. I mean, do you think we can accurately predict her?”

“I hope so. This will all go to shit otherwise.”

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